5-10-07

Walpole Subdivision Plan Draws Questions

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

          Walpole developer Fred Dill spoke to his 12-lot subdivision proposal at Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting.  And he got an earful of questions and skeptical comments from Board members, abutters and neighbors.

          Walpole D&D LLC, Dill’s development company jointly created with Walpole resident and developer Randy Daniels, proposes to carve out 12 residential lots between Old Keene Road and Wentworth Road about a mile south of the village.

 The wooded acreage is cut in two by Hooper Road, a dirt way varying from 12 to about 19 feet wide with limited ditches on either side.  The portion of the land north of Hooper Road contains several small ponds and wet areas, and much of the property on either side of Hooper appears, according to Dill, to have ledge just below the surface.  Some of the land on the south of Hooper slopes to the southeast; other portions slope toward Old Keene Road.

While Tuesday’s hearing was to focus on whether D&D’s subdivision application was compete, neighbors and abutters raised questions about sufficiency of well water in the area, possible rainwater run off issues, traffic on Hooper Rd., blasting problems, and who should pay for possible improving of Hooper Road for as many as 120 trips per day from projected new residents.

Wentworth Road resident Ken Walsh said that he had had a well run dry in the recent past, and that other nearby residents had had well water shortages. Walsh's concern was echoed by Dr. David Heydenreich, an abutter to the D&D land, who bought a new house approximately a year ago.  He said that he had had a well run dry and had to drill a second one.  Finally Old Keene Road resident Gordon Hunt said, “There’s not a lot of water in the area.  With 12 more holes in the ground there’s likely to be a problem.  What recourse,” he asked, “will abutters have if their wells run dry because of these new wells?” Mr. Dill’s response was that “I don’t have an answer to concerns about the water issues…When you drill a well, you don’t know whether you hit somebody else’s vein or close it up.  It’s not my responsibility to see that your wells keep running. This is going down the road of guaranteeing everybody everything!”

    As to Hooper Road, Planning Board chair Jeff Miller said, “it’s my opinion that the road couldn’t handle increased traffic and it would have to be upgraded.  I do not feel it’s up to the town to upgrade the road.” 

     Road Agent Jim Terrell agreed that the road would need upgrading to handle the traffic, especially for house construction traffic. “It would require a good bit of work to repair it.  It would require grinding and paving.  I’d want to lay down fabric at a minimum, widen it and put in drainage ditches.  As a rough estimate, I’d say the cost would be around $60,000.”  No decision was made about whether the road would be upgraded or who would pay for such an upgrade.

As to blasting to create septic systems, Dill said “We couldn’t dig the area, so septics would be ‘built-up’ systems.” 

Susanna Steisel, an abutter whose land was flooded in 2005 in unrelated construction on Wentworth Road, expressed concern about new rainwater runoff should additional houses be constructed abutting her land and along Wentworth Road as shown on Dill’s drawings.

 Jill Dance, a resident from across Wentworth Road from the proposed subdivision, asked about the safety of children from the new houses using school buses on Hooper Road where there are no sidewalks and its narrow width makes it difficult for two cars to pass.  Mr. Dill’s response was “School buses wouldn’t use Hooper road.”  And, he said, “Just because you don’t want anyone else to move into town is no reason to start waving flags.  We followed all the town rules [in our plan] and asked for no exceptions.  In fact, this plan meets the criteria better than many other situations in town.”

Mrs. Dance observed, “I think the homework should have been done before the land was bought.  We have water problems, drainage problems, traffic problems, and road problems.  Maybe this isn’t the spot!”

While several nearby residents suggested that D&D supply engineering studies on the road and hydrology studies on the availability of water for additional wells, Mr. Dill responded, “One problem is that we do these studies and nobody believes them.  You’re just spending someone’s money.”

Board chairman Miller ruled that the Board would not reach a conclusion at the meeting on the completeness of the application as “we have a couple of issues about the road and the wells.  So we should not close the public hearing and, rather, set a continuation of it at the June 11 meeting.”

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