The Fall River Conservation Commission convened on Monday, February 7, 2022, at 5:30 p.m. The meeting began with the tabling of two items: an enforcement order (SE-24-622) for Berkeley Street Limited LLC concerning unpermitted wetland alteration at Bell Rock Road, and a request for a certificate of compliance (SE-24-690) from AIS Real Estate Development Corporation for 411 and 448 Courtney Street. Both were tabled to future meetings due to a canceled site visit and missing as-built plans, respectively, with unanimous votes. The commission then approved a Notice of Intent for Madison FR Properties LLC (Douglas Omburg) to construct a 42,800 square foot commercial building and parking facility at 594, 0, and 420 Airport Road. This project, located within the 100-foot buffer zone to a bordering vegetated wetland, was approved with several conditions outlined in a memo from City Engineer Dan Aguiar, including adding erosion control barriers, outlet control structure details, riprap splash pads, and an easement. The project was deemed to meet Wetlands Protection Act requirements and improve existing conditions, passing with a unanimous vote. An amended order of conditions (SC-24-782) for the MassDOT Highway Division's Route 79 and Davol Street project was also approved. The amendment was necessary to reroute a proposed outfall due to issues with state-owned property, moving it to Remington Street and then to the Taunton River. The approval was conditioned on the applicant addressing all comments from the peer reviewer, CDM Smith, to the commission's satisfaction, and passed unanimously. The election of 2022 Conservation Commission officers was tabled due to the absence of a member. The meeting concluded after unanimously accepting and placing on file four items of correspondence and approving the minutes from January 3, 2022.
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City Officials
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welcome everyone to the fall river conservation commission meeting uh monday february 7th 5 30 p.m uh pursuant to the open meeting law any person or person
0:27pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any media attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible uh roll call for uh for the commission um jim cusick here louis ferrer here chris boyle here
0:58here james hornsby okay and we have with us uh assist uh assistant planner uh planner uh needler i thought you no
1:23i'm sorry and nina i'm sorry that's great okay we'll start with some old business first on the old business uh enforcement order se-24-622 owner applicant berkeley street limited llc project location bell rock road access map w19002 commission to discuss enforcement order for violations including unpermitted alteration of wetland resource area and associated buffer area and expired order of conditions this was
2:04tabled from january 3rd uh 2022 meeting mr chair may i speak on this yes thank you so as we discussed at our last meeting um this item involves um you know the violation at the bell rock road quarry site i am going to recommend that this get tabled into the next meeting unfortunately we were supposed to have a site visit last monday but um due to the amount of snow
2:33we were unable to do that and we've been unable to reschedule it so i'm hoping to meet them later this week depending on the weather so at this point i recommend tabling this to the next or to the march meeting okay uh is there a motion to uh tabling this motion table motion the table is made seconded by chris is that here therefore second uh any discussion roll call starting with uh chris hi hi hi
3:11you guys new business uh request for certificate of compliance se-24-690 owner applicant ais real estate development corporation project location 411 courtney street and 448 courtney street assessors map u-23-0050 and u-23-0052 filed by ais real estate development corporation requesting certificate of compliance thank you mr chair um i recommend that this be tabled till next month um
3:49unfortunately the application did not or the application for the request for for the certificate certificate of compliance did not include um appropriate as built plans so i've been in contact with the applicant they are going to submit those for the next meeting okay is there a motion to table this move the table second motion is made and seconded uh vote starting chris hi hi hi all right this uh
4:21certificate client will be table for our next meeting second on our missile uh notice of intent owner applicant douglas omburg madison fr properties llc project location 5940420 airport road assessors map z-03 z-03-0142 and z-03-008 filed by cec inc on behalf of the applicant the applicant proposes to construct a 43 000 square foot commercial building parking facility with associated grading and utilities
5:02within the 100-foot buffer zone to bordering vegetated wetland over here again because i don't want to be
5:22i know it'd be better for the for the reverend man
6:08hopefully that's straight enough uh so good evening members of the board my name is tom roseboro i work with civil and environmental consultants i'm here tonight on behalf of the applicant madison fr properties llc for uh sorry on for the proposed redevelopment located at 594 0 and 420 airport road in fall river massachusetts i'm here before the board tonight uh requesting approval for
6:34the project uh within the underfoot buffer of the bordering vegetated wetland so the applicant's looking to redevelop an area of land 3.9 acres so these two parcels uh lots uh map z3 lots 24 and 142 for the proposed development as well as attaching onto this access road that's on the butter to the north uh not z3 lot 8.
7:05so those are the three parcels that are included in the project the proposed development's a 40 000 square foot warehouse commercial building with 2 800 square feet of office space the project as proposed complies with the massachusetts or sorry the massdep stormwater management standards as well as the city of fall river stonewall management program so the existing conditions of the site as you can see here
7:33the frontage of the two properties is along airport road bound to the west the project is bound to the north to the east and to the south by neighboring industrial facilities to the east and to the south our wetlands the bordering vegetated wetland here denoted in yellow denoted in orange here is 9 100 square feet the existing industrial warehouse in gray is the paved parking that's
8:02associated with it and the hardscape and the entrance way off of airport road and then the greens denoting the undeveloped vacant dense wooded area uh that's located on the site uh so there's basically the site under existing conditions sorry i'm trying to get in front of here uh sheep flows east to west across the property to an existing drainage whale that runs along airport road and another
8:28drain swale that runs along between the northern abutter and this property here which ultimately conveys down into the airport road drainage system as well when this drainage system was originally sized it was sized to accommodate the flows for the entire industrial park uh with the with the connotation that the new developments on the site would treat the runoff prior to discharging them into that soil
8:53so the site as proposed or sorry the site under existing conditions is not contained within a flood zone and we did test bits out of the site uh prior to this meeting that verified the underlying soil conditions as a sandy loan the project is located within the industrial park zoning district and flipping over to the actual proposed project here so again to reiterate we're looking at 40 000 square feet
9:21a warehouse manufacturing facility 2 800 square feet of an office right off the corner here and just just to denote it right away so this building is further out from the wetlands than the existing building which was basically like on the corner of the wetlands right here so again the proposed building in orange the wetlands in yellow the green on the site is the proposed landscape area
9:48the br sorry the the gray on the side is the proposed paved area hardscape area along with the three entry ways two of which are on airport road and one to the existing access within the northern butter and the lighter green colors here are just the the undisturbed area adjacent to the to the wetland here uh the red dash line here is the hundred foot buffer line so as you can see about
10:11fifty percent of the buildings within that buffer and what we've done to accommodate that as well is we've added a swale here to redirect flow away from that wetland this whale here to redirect flow away from that wetland out to the drainage system along airport road and along the northern putter which is then conveyed over to airport road so like i mentioned we have three access points for the site with the larger
10:35being on the northern facility or the the loading bays located here at the north end of the facility so that's where the larger trucks are gonna be coming in off airport road and then two accesses off of airport road just for increased circulation to the site uh we've added for storm storm water maintenance and runoff as i said we're pushing with swales away from the wetlands so we're carrying that
10:58flow as under existing conditions to the two drainage uh swales and then we've implemented the use of storm ceptor catch basin units so that the the landscaped area and the paved area within the site is conveyed to these units which aid to remove sediment which aid to remove uh oil or anything else that's built on the on the paved area or the or the landscaped area within the site and then
11:21that runoff is conveyed to two infiltration chamber systems that we have proposed here beneath the paved roadway and along with the clean runoff from the building all that is conveyed to the infiltration systems for increased recharging to the ground now the southern infiltration chamber system here has an overflow discharge that goes directly out to the drainage system within airport road and the
11:46drainage system to the north here has a discharge an overflow discharge to the retention pond up here to the northern side of the site which allows for additional storage and also it slows down the speed of the runoff that's actually conveyed out to the drainage swale um and ultimately just gets out to the drainage well again so uh in the proposed condition we're mitigating the peak rates under the 2
12:08the 10 the 25 and 100 year storm so we're we're under what that was under existing conditions this development is very similar to what is out there in the industrial park already and then we have uh erosion erosion sediment control barrier along the edge of the development on the limit of work between the development and the the bordering vegetated wetland that'll be installed prior to the
12:34construction upheld through the construction and then in the stormwater report that you guys have in front of you that we submitted with the plans originally uh we have our erosion sediment control plan as well as the operation maintenance plan for the facility and the stormwater facilities that are being used within the site uh so that's that's all i have for you guys today again this i will be going
12:56through site plan review as well if we get approval from you guys this is just step one of the process but that will be the point which uh the stormwater design and everything else will be peer-reviewed if necessary um so that's all i have if you guys have any questions i can do my best to answer them and if i can't answer them tonight i'll get back to you with an answer as
13:13soon as i can so so um i'm looking so the uh groundwater elevation at your um the mitigation systems are going to take water from the roof correct there are two of them the groundwater recharges yes there are two of them yep do you have any concern because your groundwater elevation is at 171.2 feet and the bottom of the chamber is only at 174 so that only gives you
13:422.8 feet give or take right um and with the proximity to the wetlands is there a possibility that that those could become inundated with groundwater and render them less effective or uh so typically i mean under the mass water massachusetts stormwater standards uh it's really only calls for a two foot separation from the bottom of chamber to your ground water so the two point i think if you give the
14:052.8 i think that's from the bottom of stone it might be from the bottom of a chamber but with six inches of stone you'd still have over two feet of separation between the seasonal high ground water and the bottom of chamber so all right thank you any other questions yeah i do would you go over in that large yellow on your mouth that is that's the bordering vegetated wetland and what is that i couldn't really get
14:36to it because of the weather and i couldn't really find it um would you describe it's how is it wet so just because of the groundwater elevation here so if you're if we look at these test pits here the elevations are pretty high on these test bits for groundwater and really this is the area that's delineated is that surface water coming up no okay to the surface essentially so that looks to
15:06me like if they were in the building here isn't that when we have a day like today the water would naturally flow into that wetland so under yeah so under existing conditions right now the high point on the site is like over here but the ground water your the muffle is is a problem but say it again yeah so the ground so on the right hand side of the plan so i'll
15:36point it to right here actually so on this side of the plan which is this darker green being the wetland area yep this is the higher point on the site so under in the existing conditions all the if it was a rain event like today all that water is being carried over land over to these drainage soils okay and how would you describe this area so this is all wooded right now dense dense wooded area
16:03then how is it wetland i mean there are different types of wetlands and wetlands can include trees so it may be a wooded wetland that's why i couldn't find the wetland okay and i think i could probably shed a little bit of light on it uh for the record i'm dan aguiar i'm the new city engineer so uh reverend hornsby the area that's shaded in yellow and i went out and
16:33looked at the wetlands line to verify the new section of wetlands line and in my report to the commission i detail this the upper portion of this bvw that's shown on this plan was actually approved under an older order of conditions about a year ago by this commission so when we go back to the existing conditions plan tom you can flip back so currently out on the site that's the existing building that sits there
17:00the parcel directly north shaded in green that has an existing order of conditions for a 20 000 square foot building and parking area the applicant when the property next door came up for sale decided to purchase that and encompass it into a singular project so the bvw that was approved originally for the northern parcel is still valid the new bvw that we've uh that i hadn't went out to go look at
17:30to verify is basically just inside the tree line of the developed site that you see currently on the south and the site to the north actually is not vegetated any longer because they they started construction on that they put up their erosion control put it there dep sign cleared the site that sites actually under construction for that 20 000 square foot building it was only recently that they were able to
17:55acquire this so they stopped construction so if you go out and visit that site anything within the wooded area is a weapon anything that's cleared or the building in the parking area adjacent to it that is considered an upland area and what happened here is the yellow area that's bvw although it sits higher in elevation it's very flat so the water table is such that it allows vegetation to grow at a rate of
18:22greater than 50 wetland plant species within the area then once we get past that flat area and the site slopes down towards airport road the fact that there is that slope and elevation difference the groundwater is able to get deep enough so that wetland vegetation does not grow so it's odd that you have a wetland at the upgrading portion of your site but that's how a good portion of the industrial park is
18:47i hope that maybe helps oh that's very helpful thank you i used to sit on that side i appreciate your welcome and i look forward to doing great things with the city
19:09so i think somebody may want to read in my report anyway and that may help i'll shed some light on something right i think and there is a there is a back page i have not seen it
19:30uh dan is a urine is your suggestion to have some revisions made to the plans yes so you should have in your package a letter that i wrote as engineer and conservation agent to the commission so you may i think you might want to read that into the record so that everyone is aware of it anybody that came to see it and the public as well so i'll just read the uh the memo now um
20:00with the city engineers uh comments um after reviewing uh this matter uh i offer the following findings one to date a file number has not been received two project consists and and once i'm done reading if you want to address anything that's you're welcome too uh two project consists of con of the construction of forty two thousand eight hundred square feet building with associated parking utilities and grading
20:29three project encompasses two parcels of land and a portion of a third a 420 airport road currently contains an existing commercial building and parking area to be raised b zero airport road is a vacant parcel of land currently under construction as permitted through the city of fall river conservation commission and site plan review committee anc 420 airport road currently contains
20:58three commercial buildings and parking area number four wetland flag series a1 through a12 and b7 through b17 was approved under sc 24-0747 number five wetland flag series 1a through 18a was confirmed in the field site walk conducted january 27 2022.
21:23uh number six historically some storm water management in the industrial park required that the applicant direct treat uh treated runoff into existing swale drainage system with no attenuation required number seven at the suggestion of the agent the applicant has submitted a design that has gone beyond that requirement and is in full compliance with the department of environmental protection stormwater
21:47management standards number eight the submitted plan shall be revised to include a add additional erosion control barrier to protect the existing swale system b add in outlet control structure detail c add riprap splash pads to the end of all fes outfalls d add the appropriate easement required for the access and drainage connection to 420 airport road parcel eea reference to the previously approved
22:19project and wetland line with file number shall be added to the plans f the submitted stormwater report which includes a con construction period pollution prevention and erosion control plan with the operation maintenance plan shall be included and referenced in the order of conditions and delete what appears to be a few errant lines that the city engineer will discuss with the applicant
22:46uh lastly number nine it is um the city engineers opinion that the project meets the requirements of the wetlands protection act and will create improved condition from existing and permitted uses of the properties the commission may wish to approve the project and issue an order conditions with both standard and special conditions including the issuance of a file number without adverse comment
23:12any other questions or comments from the board did you have anything else yeah so just two a couple of these so i think the the preliminary plan that this was based off of so we i everything on here is perfectly reasonable we'll we'll make the changes as needed but the uh the riplap splash pads at the end of all the fes outlets we have included those now at all the discharge locations and i
23:40believe what was called those the air and lines are removed now but again we'll all follow up with that as well okay is there a motion from the board would you repeat the motion i'm asking if there is a the commission would like to make a motion whether to approve or reject the table and make a motion to approve motion recruitment has been made with these conditions with these conditions
24:14on conditions and seconded second right withstanding order of commissions plus plus those conditions per the memo that the engineer right that's what i was uh a vote chris hi hi hi motion's been approved thank you very much
24:52thanks tom thank you
25:04okay third order business uh request for issuance oh excuse me oh no that's right uh request for issuance of amended order conditions notice of intent sc-24-782 owner advocate mass d-o-t highway division project location route 79 into wall street filed by data on behalf of applicant the afghan is requesting an amendment to the order conditions that was issued on december 14 2021
25:42you very much everyone my name is laura kraus from beta group here with mike rieger from trans systems and liana dinunzio from massdot um so we were in front of you a couple months ago to present the project and now we are requesting an amended order of conditions the reason being this plan is probably best to see it on the proposed outfall on brownell street went through a property right here that
26:12is owned by the office of fishing and boating access done by the state and in order to place that outfall through that area we went through a number of conversations with massdot and that work requires legislation to approve work on state-owned property for that reason we had to reroute the outfall rather than go through the article 97 disposition process so now the outfall comes down to the
26:40this part to this point on brownell street takes a right down remington and then takes a left out to the taunton river uh this property we already were acquiring an easement or uh for some of the work on the brownell street outfall so it was just changing that easement we already had all the information that we needed so it just made sense to uh put the proposed outfall in that location um the
27:03impacts are comparable to what was originally proposed slightly increased uh just due to the layout of the area let's go back to this on the revised sheet that was included in the updated notice of intent uh plan set um there's this area is slightly more natural than the revetment that was located at the brunel street outfall for that reason there's actually a wider coastal beach the brownell street
27:32outfall we have the postal beach up to the revetment here the coastal beach extends a little bit further inland so we had to delineate that boundary we all there's also a salt marsh an area of salt marsh located near the proposed location of the outfall we have to go out and delineate that as well we stayed away from that we didn't want to touch the salt marsh um and so
27:52we left a decent amount of space between the limit of work and that area um with our submission for the request for an amended order we also submitted our by stormwater report which intended to address all of cdm's comments the original order of conditions required that we submitted a revised stormwater report prior to construction and that cdm approve our changes so i do believe that we're still going
28:18to need that condition in this request for an amended condition order because uh they haven't finished their review of our updated information i guess i don't know if you have any specific comments if you'd like me to go through any of the questions that there's comments that cdm had or want me to list out all of the impacts again i'd be happy to do that i have none i'm not sure but i think
28:46some commission does i think the reduction of potential csos far outweighs any changes to the plan um the benefits of of that was significant with respect to water quality so uh mr chair may i speak yes so uh we've been in contact with cdm smith regarding the peer review of the stormwater portion of this project unfortunately they were not able to make the deadline for today they have estimated that
29:18they will be able to get us the report for this uh mid-february um though looking reviewing um the changes to the plans um i believe that you can approve this the amended order of conditions with that condition that the applicant shall address all comments provided here by the peer reviewer tdm smith to theirs on the commission's satisfaction that's beyond that i i think that all the original uh conditions for the
29:48original order still stand and are still appropriate for this project and i did not find any additional comments uh to be added to this at this time okay okay yeah may there be a motion then to uh to approve with uh i'm sorry where there uh did you make so it would be a motion to approve the amended order of conditions including the condition that they satisfy peer review comments from cd they're from the pure
30:35all hi thank you so much thank you thanks laura what's your title now right so i should just play the city planner dan's now technically being conservation so the fourth item uh i think we will table the 2022 conservation commission election officers with uh john being absent tonight so uh do we need a motorcycle okay we'll make the motion motion to the table the election has been made can i get a second one
31:15did we get a second on the motion i couldn't hear the motion so the motion was to continue to table the election of new officers for 2022 until the next meeting sure since johnson sure
31:44all all right that passes uh we'll do these receipt of correspondence individually number five receipt of correspondence a review and discussion of water quality clarification for route 79 in the wall street project is there a motion to accept and place on file to exception please sound files we have a second second thank you and
32:35number six receipt of correspondence review and discussion of npc supplemental information before the executive park vmd warehouse development any uh discussion or motion to accept and place on file so moved second second roll call vote number seven receipt of correspondence review and discussion of release baby measure plan filing for 631 airport road any discussion or motion to accept and place on file
33:21motion to accept and place on file motion has been made to accept and place on file second seconded roll call vote all right and last receipt of correspondence review and discussion of non-pcp mineral oil dielectric fluid release
33:50any discussion or motion to to place on file motion to accept and place on file second second motion for me and second is will popo all right approval minutes for january 3rd 2022 so moved second second roll call vote hi all right hi all right let's have it uh any public inputs all right no one here for such can i have a motion for adjournment motions made and seconded roll call vote hi all right hi
34:36all right thank you very much thank you good job