12-21-07

Walpole Planning Board Clarifies Subdivision Expectations

Missing Agreement with Road Agent Found

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

            The Walpole Planning Board, seeking to move forward after being surprised that developer Walpole D&D LLC rebuilt a road without getting the Board’s approval, Thursday sent D&D a follow-up letter clarifying its future expectations.

            While preparing the Board’s letter, Board secretary Pam Aslinger found the agreement that Fred Dill of Walpole D&D had said he had made with Walpole Road Agent Jim Terrell but that neither Aslinger nor Board Chair Jeff Miller remembered seeing.  The newly found but undated agreement set out what D&D proposed to do to upgrade Hooper Road. Dill and Road Agent Terrell had signed it, but apparently when Dill had given it to the secretary at the September 11 Board meeting, it had been mixed in with other maps and papers and filed. 

            Aslinger said in a note Wednesday to the Dill and to Board members that she was “very sorry for the oversight.”

Board members, therefore, either were unaware of the agreement or had forgotten about it and did not act to approve or disapprove it.  D&D did not ask whether the agreement met the requirements of the Board and proceeded to make the upgrades to the to road without posting a bpond to cover the cost of the improvements that was part of the ocnditional approval. When Dill announced that D&D had completed the work at the December 12 Board meeting, the Board expressed surprise and frustration even though Dill claimed that he had submitted a signed plan.

Whether Terrell had authority to bind the Planning Board to the proposed upgrade plan or whether the Board intended to grant him such authority is unclear. 

Whatever its authority, the recently discovered agreement has existed for several months, and it estimates that the new sub-division “may create an additional 60 to 80 vehicles trips pre-day over Hooper Road.”

            In it, D&D agreed to remove the existing surface of Hooper Road up to a depth of 6 inches and widen the road “to a minimum of 18 feet, where feasible” and noted that 13 trees had been marked for removal. D&D also agreed to lay down a road fabric meeting the road agent’s specifications on the bed and to lay out 6 inches of crushed stone and to compact and grade it.  Finally the agreement anticipated the installation of a culvert under Hooper Road, apparently at the east end, as specified by the road agent.

            In last week’s follow-up letter to Walpole D&D, the Planning Board gave D&D updated instructions on how to fulfill its conditions for subdivision approval going forward.  It tells D&D LLC to “provide a plan approved by the road agent showing the improvements that have been made to Hooper Road along with his written agreement with you outlining his specifications and how they have been achieved.”  The plan must also include a “statement of findings” once Road Agent Terrell’s inspections are completed during the winter and in the spring.  To avoid further work without prior approval, the letter to D&D specifies that the Board must have written plans to approve prior to any further construction.  In addition, the Board is requiring D&D LLC to post a performance bond to insure that the work is completed or to provide a written request to waive the bond that the Planning Board may vote on.  [D&D LLC filed such a request on December 20.]

            In addition to the road upgrade plan, the Planning Board again requested D&D LLC to “Provide a storm water drainage plan/map to include existing, altered or improved drainage…as required in the Town of Walpole subdivision regulations.”

            Further the Board reminds D&D in its follow-up letter that it must provide a written plan/map showing how to increase recharge, conservation and water recapture drainage as recommend in the Weston&Sampson report and criteria.  Weston&Sampson is a hydrological engineering firm from Peabody, MA that studied the proposed subdivision’s potential impact on area water resources.

            The Walpole D&D LLC subdivision plan will be on the agenda of the next Planning Board meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 8, 2008 in the Town Hall.

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