The Conservation Commission has tried to simplify the process by which a wetlands boundary can be determined so Walpole Woodworkers, which is relocating to Maine, can sell its East Street property to a developer who wants to build affordable housing.
The commission last week issued what it called a "friendly enforcement order" to remove dumped materials from the site so it can determine what is wetland and what is not.
"I have some deep-seated concerns about disposal on the edge of (the) wetlands," commission consultant Mary Trudeau said at last Wednesday's meeting. Trudeau advised that fill material including wood byproducts from the woodworkers be "pulled back" so the substrata could be examined.
Trudeau told the commission that without such examination, it cannot approve a notice detailing the area that should be considered wetlands.
"I need additional information," Trudeau said.
Fairfield Residential is expected to purchase the 16-acre site with the purpose of developing a 40B or 40R housing project there. Such projects are designed to increase the affordable housing in a community.
Preliminary talks with the town suggested plans to build up to 250 residential units.
The commission hired Trudeau to check out the work of a Woodworkers' representative who has defined what she believes to be the wetlands area in an Abutter Notice of Resource Area Delineation. That representative placed red flagging tape with numbers to mark the edge of the wetlands. Trudeau reviewed the flagging by looking at records and walking the property.
Trudeau agreed substantially with flagging of the 16-acre East Street site, with several important exceptions. "It's a complicated site," she said.
She described a section parallel to Kendall Street where there is a 10- to 12-foot-high "pile of woodchips, (along with) bits of fence," that makes it "impossible to tell exactly what is going on."
Trudeau observed one area where a mesh fence was "operating as a retaining wall," where fill was banked up to the wetlands.
Yet another area, she noted, even showed evidence of a "new violation" where fill had been sealed into the wetland area, and a new fence put up.
Trudeau, Woodworkers' representatives, and even attending neighbors all agreed that a "history of alteration" makes it difficult to tell where the wetlands ends and the Woodworkers' site begins, Trudeau said.
Steve Clapp, speaking for Woodworkers, cited this history as a mitigating factor. There has been alteration dating back to the early 20th century, Clapp said. He cited the Walpole Center Development Co. that occupied the site through the 1930s.
Clapp also wondered if an enforcement order, friendly or not, was necessary.
"Why can't we be allowed to (perform this pullback) voluntarily and without an enforcement order?" Clapp asked. He added that the material the Conservation Commission termed "fill" is considered "product" by Woodworkers.
"It's to make sure what's done is done right," commission Chairman John Wiley responded.
The enforcement order passed unanimously. The commission also voted unanimously to find the wetlands/Woodworkers' line "under supervision of a third party."
The hearing will continue at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26.
Jeb Bobseine can be reached at jeb@walpoletimes.com
