6 Village
Green
MEETING OF
Members Present Absent
Robert Yarmo, Chairman Frank Culbert
Marc Duquette Bill McDevitt, Selectmen Rep.
Paul Gagnon
Sanjay Kakkad
Deborah Scott
Chairman Robert Yarmo brought the
meeting to order at
HEARINGS:
Map 9;
Peter Schauer of Schauer Environmental Consultants, L.L.C. represented this case.
Mr. Yarmo gave some history on this violation to other board members: “DES had contacted him last August to have him take part in a site walk at the Fish and Game property. He met with Dr. Richardson and Arlene of Enforcement and another woman from DES. There were four of them on the site walk. There was also another wetlands scientist, Matt Geiger of Oak Hill Environmental, the Fish and Game Club and the Club’s attorney. What was explained to Mr. Yarmo at that time and what we reviewed was that basically there are 12 acres of land that had been cleared for what was suppose to be a 600-yd shooting range. In that process there were some wetlands violations. Oakhill Environmental that was there explained the violations. We reviewed the violations. There were 47,000 sq. ft. of impact and there was a vernal pool that was severely impacted. A mitigation plan was also discussed. We left the meeting/site expecting that something would occur or something would be submitted to Conservation but nothing had been submitted until we got the dredge and fill application from Schauer Environmental.
Mr. Schauer spoke and said that he got involved in this project sometime in late September, 2003 after he had received correspondence from DES that required him to submit something back to them in two (2) weeks. He said he requested an extension until the end of October. He said that he was not trying to avoid the public session, only that he was trying to get through the enforcement action and decide what DES wanted on the plans and for mitigation prior to coming before Conservation. He said he had met with DES the night before our last meeting, January 13. Mr. Schauer said he was unable to meet with Conservation because of a procedure that he was having done in the hospital.
After meeting with DES he has summarized and is open for discussion to see what Conservation’s concerns are still and to see if there is some remedy on this. Mr. Schauer showed the area of wetlands. According to Mr. Schauer, there was a berm built and is where the first shooting platform is. The location that is referred to is dictated by the property lines says Mr. Schauer. There are a couple of roads that come into the site, there’s one crossing that have been upgraded and it’s believed there was no permit to do so said Mr. Schauer. There was an old culvert in the area for a farm crossing a long time ago when it was farms. They (F & G Club) upgraded this in order to do the logging and there was an impact. There was approximately 4,000 thousand sq.ft. of fertile un-scrapped (?) impact pointed out and said it will remain if a permit is granted so that there is access to a piece of land. A larger area of wetland was impacted where the road crossing was put in – that is 6,400.05 sq. ft. of impact. The area was also stumped in the wetland, trees taken out and that is considered impact and is 12,670 sq. ft. There was 9, 639 sq. ft. that was stumped along the side of the wetland and is 6, 898 sq.ft. Mr. Schauer says the long and short of it is that there is 39,649.05 sq. ft. of disturbance to wetlands on the site. There is a little discrepancy from what Oakhill Environmental reported. Oakhill had the entire area in front of the shooting platform classified as a wetland. Mr. Schaufer said he totally disagrees, vehemently disagrees, and it is not a wetland. It may come in as a wetland now because they have pushed all the materials up into a berm and almost to the water table. It may be a wetland now because of pushing the materials into a berm, and that is the discrepancy between Oakhills calculations of impact and his calculations. He said in the plans that he submitted with the application he planned to tie into another area and that would be a moat area. DES did not like that option he says. They advised me to create what we call a plus equestrian scrub shrub – a wetland that will become forested wetland over time. Mr. Schauer said they plan to create some vernal pools by intercepting the groundwater. It is not very easily done because it is very dependant on having water in it in the mid-summer months, i.e., June and July. Schaufer Environmental will be on site when it is built to make sure the elevations are correct before the plantings proceed. Mr. Schauer listed all the bushes, grasses, etc. that will be used to re-plant the affected area.
Mr. Schauer says there will be posting of signs, “Conservation Area”, so that there is no mowing in those areas. They will be monitoring and make reports to DES and Pelham Conservation once the project is done so that it is a success.
Mr. Yarmo said that some of the
information was new and not in the package.
Mr. Schauer said yes and it would be submitted
to Conservation after this meeting. Mr.
Yarmo stated to Mr. Schauer that this is the biggest
wetland violation that the town of
Mr. Schaufer said that P.F.& G. has hired him to be their environmental wetland person. Mr. Schaufer says they have another project coming up where they want to build a pond, a trout pond. Mr. Schaufer stated to them to “let’s do it right this time and get someone in there that knows what they’re doing and have the Conservation Commission be part of the process”. They totally agreed said Mr. Schaufer. The volunteers who had done this project took the advice of the forester and Mr. Schaufer said that he didn’t think that some foresters know what a wetland is and they took the advice from the wrong person. Mr. Schaufer said with all due respect to that profession there are some very difficult areas that are hard to tell if they are wetlands or not, especially when you get into sandy soils.
Mr. Yarmo questioned Mr. Schaufer about what they meant by mowing. Mr. Schaufer replied that it is like mowing your lawn; they take the brush off to keep the brush down so that saplings coming up do not encumber the shooters. Only the wetland in the middle would be mowed. This was a forested wetland before it was cut. There is an area that will be hand-clipped at a 2 to 4 foot level so that there will be line of sight.
Mr. Gagnon had a question about the wetland that was to be restored – it’s 40-ft. wide and 1500-ft long? Mr. Schaufer answered that is correct. Mr. Gagnon stated that the WCD is 50-ft around all sides of the vernal pool, how can you have a vernal pool when you only have 40-ft to work with; there will be no buffer around the vernal pool? Mr. Schaufer stated that there would be opportunities for elevated temperatures in the water in those pools for the first few years until the canopy starts to grow. Mr. Gagnon asked Mr. Schaufer if the state requires that you re-create more square footage than what was originally described? Mr. Schaufer answered yes. He said the draft mitigation rules now require one and a half times the disturbance. There are 2,000 herbaceous plants/plugs being planted and shrubs, somewhere in the hundreds.
Mr. Yarmo said the dredge and
fill application states that there is no impact on habitats of migratory fish,
wildlife and that wildlife can still use the area and that the range will
provide diversified open grass which will benefit large game species. Also that it will act as a recharge area for
wildlife habitat and all these functions will still exist with the construction
of the range. Mr. Yarmo asked how does
this area act as a wildlife habitat area if it’s a firing range? Mr. Schaufer says
there will only be 10 events per year, i.e., 10 weekends, 20 days that is
predicted that they will use this site.
Mr. Yarmo asks if that includes incremental use for practicing? Mr. Schaufer said
that was his understanding, that it would only be 10 events during the
year. I don’t know if we can hold them
to that, but that is how it has been explained to him. It’s a special range, and will only be used
to train people from all over the state, in fact all over
Mr. Yarmo said that when he went out on the site walk last summer there was some mention of endangered species and habitat removed. Mr. Schaufer said he contacted NHI and they sent a letter back saying there was Eastern pond muscle and bog floaters on Golden Brook coming out of Simpson Mill. Mr. Yarmo asked when did all this work occur, and when was it cleared? Mr. Schaufer said did not know that he only got involved in late September, that they had already stopped and put the silt fence up around the edge of the wetlands and had been in a holding pattern for a couple of months. He believed it was either during the summer or early spring last year. Mr. Yarmo asked what is going to happen to the vernal pool at the shooting area. Mr. Schaufer said it will still exist. What DES requested that we do is to plant rosabagosa or the vine that has barbs (briar bush) on it to stop people from going into see the vernal pool egg masses and stuff like that to protect it from anyone going into that area. They didn’t want it fenced because it would draw attention to it.
Mr. Yarmo introduced Mark West of West Environmental and said that he was asked to come down to help us with this, as this is way over our head.
Mr. West said it was not clear to him where the entire holdings of their property are in relation to the big picture. Mr. West asked if that particular area had already being used as a range, or did they just build this range in this area at this time, that it would help in understanding the alternatives. Because of the boundary lines, etc., you can’t avoid impact to the wetlands of where the range locations are. Understanding how this all happened would be useful in understanding application. Mr. West asked Mr. Schaufer if he was cutting trees to build the mitigation and Mr. Schaufer answered no. Mr. West suggested that maybe the pools could be constructed right adjacent to the tree lines so they could get some shade right off the bat. Mr. West asked if there were other disturbances of wetlands during the cutting process? Are there large skidder ruts? Are there any areas that need to be repaired? Mr. West also asked how the determination was made regarding wetland impact? Were there aerial stereo photos or was their actual delineation of what the wetlands were prior to the disturbance was another question by Mr. West. Mr. West said it would be very beneficial if there were any old surveys of the area or old mapping. Mr. Schaufer said there were none available to him. Mr. West said if there were to be a new wetland, how was it going to be managed in the future? Mr. Schaufer agreed with Mr. West when he brought up the statement that there was one major stream crossing. Mr. West asked if the culvert had been upgraded because the Club may not have understood the hydrology and is it a significant size culvert for the amount of water and a culvert that would allow biological connectivity in other words? If the stream is 2-feet wide is it large enough to handle the flow of water that comes down? He suggested that these comments be put on the plan and justified. Mr. West commented about another crossing and asked if that had a culvert or does it not need a culvert? Mr. Schaufer said that there was a 2.5 –ft steel culvert at the major stream, i.e. 30 inches. Mr. West said sometimes the State likes an equalizer culvert so that over time it creates "ponding" or changes hydrology. He said it is more common in a forested wetland where they don’t want you to block it off and kill the trees. That will be looked at the final site walk. If it’s determined that it doesn’t need a culvert it should be explained why said Mr. West. Plantings of red maples should be included in the forested wetland so that they will grow taller than the low type shrub plantings that Mr. Schaufer stated earlier. Mr. West also brought up the issue of lead contaminants being deposited into the ground at the firing range and whether that lead might enter into the stream or surface waters. Mr. West said he didn’t know if there were “best management practices” applied in this situation being relative to wetlands and surface waters.
Mr. Yarmo referred to the day that the site walk was done. He questioned about what looked like a fill area. Mr. Schauer agreed that a lot of material had been moved. Mr. Yarmo said that the representative of Oakhill addressed that area as being one of the areas that were impacted, that it was a wetland. Mr. Yarmo said he asked the Oakhill representative how he knew as we were standing on high and dry soil. He told me to look to my left and look to my right. What I saw was ground water trickling out of the hillside. Mr. Schauer said that that was basically what he saw. When looking to the right there was groundwater going downhill. When asked how he knew it was a wetland and he (Oakhill) said he did excavations and did test borings and found wetlands soils there. Mr. Schaufer said that is because he was digging in the area that had already been excavated – it was not originally a wetland, they have dug so low, this being one, they were close to intercepting the ground water table. There were questions between Mr. Yarmo and Mr. Schaufer as to whether this was originally a wetland. Mr. Schaufer says that is because there was excavation in that area that included blasting and there was a fracture. Mr. Yarmo said he had been told that there had been no blasting there. Mr. Schaufer says there was either blasting or they had a big machine in there because there is bedrock torn that would not be the result of just your typical excavator or backhoe; it had to be a pretty good sized machine.
Mr. Gagnon said that it appears
that only Mr. Yarmo had gone on the site walk, and even though he had gone on
the site walk he still has some questions.
No others Conservation members have done a site walk. He suggests that once the plans presented
tonight are gone over that maybe another site walk could be done with
Commission members. Mr. Yarmo was in
favor of others going along for another site walk, including himself. Mr. Gagnon proposed that the site walk be
done in March. There was discussion pro
and con on when to do the site walk. It
was the intention of Mr. Gagnon that the ground be visible rather than be
covered with ice. Mr. Schaufer says there seems to be an urgency through the
Commissioner’s office to get this settled.
Mr. Yarmo said this is an old issue and he didn’t think we should
circumvent any process as this is the biggest wetland violation that the Town
of
Mr. Yarmo asked about the proposed construction of a trout pond and asked if it wouldn’t be prudent to identify the entire parcel and understand all the wetlands systems on that parcel so that it would be clearer to understand what the overall wetland impact is. Mr. Schaufer said absolutely. Mr. Schaufer said there would be a fair amount of work before the pond would be done to make sure that there is a proper water supply and not impacting very poorly drained soils. Mr. Yarmo said he would feel a lot more comfortable in knowing that this is the only place that this (pond) can go. Mr. Schaufer said they could GPS them and walk the boundaries and superimpose them onto aerial photos and know roughly where the boundaries are from within 3 to 10 feet. The size of the parcel that the Pelham Fish and Game owns is between 4 to 5 hundred acres according to Mr. Schaufer. There were aerial photos taken in 1998 and in 1927 there were USGS sheets. Mr. Schaufer said he could not find any old mappings. Mr. Yarmo asked Mr. Schaufer what assurances do we have that the restoration plans are going to be carried out? Mr. West said that the State will monitor the site during construction, monitoring in the spring and fall for at least the next 5 years probably and those reports can be requested by the Conservation Commission. There will be photos showing growth of trees, how deep the water is, and if there are egg masses the State will take all kinds of pictures of them. Mr. West says that if you see problems, even in the first year, they should get fixed right a way. Mr. Schaufer says the Pelham Fish and Game Club will be required to do so under the conditions of the permit. If they fail to fix or comply with conditions they will go before the Attorney General’s office said Mr. Schaufer. Mr. West advised the Commission that a letter would have to be written and submitted stating the conditions in violation of the permit. The permit has to be recorded at the Registry of Deeds says Mr. West.
The date of the site walk,
weather permitting, will be:
Mr. Gagnon referred to the edge of the wetland and said the entire proposal is in the WCD. Mr. Yarmo questioned Mr. Peloquin as to why he was before the Conservation Commission and whether or not he had talked with the Planning Director, Wil? Mr. Yarmo said to compromise anything around Beaver Brook is not wise. Mr. Peloquin says that Beaver Brook is about 500-ft away from this proposal. Mr. Yarmo asked if the embankment went down towards the wetland and the answer from Mr. Peloquin was yes. Mr. Peloquin said that in 1991 the owners were given a small wetland filling and that he had that information in the file. Mr. Yarmo said that the Conservation Commission members should do a site walk before any further action and that it could be done at the same time that they would be walking the Fish and Game Club property. Mr. Yarmo said he was not in favor of putting anything in there that is contrary to the wetlands protection.
Mr. Duquette
commented that it would be interesting that if it was permitted then it would
have had to come before the Conservation Commission and added that he knows
that the rules have changed quite a bit, but it would be interesting as to what
happened. Ms. Renner said there had been a lot of research and history on this
parcel and included input from Clay Mitchell, the interim planning director. Mr. Yarmo said he would like to take a look
at it and make a recommendation or at least have a more informed opinion on
it. He said compromising the wetland
buffer for commercial use isn’t something that he would probably support. Mr. Peloquin asked
that he be part of that site walk and that he is willing to hire Peter Schauer to help facilitate seeing that he would be part of
that group and get his opinion. The
Commission agreed to meet at the site at
OTHER: Mark West gave members a brief introduction concerning prime wetlands. He said that an inventory would be done of all the wetlands over 2 acres in the town – that is in chapter 700 of the RSA’s. There is also an aerial photo interpretation. Down the road, if you ever wanted to digitize it, you would be able to map all those wetlands and have them be able to pop up on any of your fancy maps and will be much more accurate than the hydro A and B mapping. This could be done for the whole town as Phase I, and you wouldn’t have to spend a fortune. The next phase would be to evaluate wetlands and members can set a threshold for that, we would only evaluate wetlands over 5 acres or over certain aquifers or whatever – you make the call said Mr. West.
Mr. Yarmo asked if the total
proposal that would identify all of the town’s wetlands of 2 acres or more
could be designated as prime wetlands?
Mr. West said that you wouldn’t have to do that mapping for the
state. He made reference to what he had
done for the town of
Mr. Gagnon asked what were the
implications to the town and the use of the land once a prime wetland has been
designated? Mr. West responded that it
has a much higher level of protection with the state of
Mr. Yarmo asked about the
location of the prime wetlands at the end of
Mr. Gagnon asked that this be put
on next month’s agenda as it will prompt members to read the proposal and come
prepared. Mr. Duquette
said that the Conservation Commission had a couple of developments that had
been looked at in the last couple of years where we’ve questioned the
proximities to the wetlands; we thought that they might have been prime
wetlands but there was no data to go by.
Developments of concern were named by members and included
Mark Duquette read the following:
“To see if the
Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of three million dollars
($3,000,000.00) to purchase land and easements for conservation purposes, and
to authorize the Board of Selectmen to issue bonds or notes in compliance with
provisions of the Municipal Finance Act (RSA 33:1 et seq., as amended);
provided, however, that notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, the
Town shall not issue more than one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) of bonds or
notes in any one calendar year; to authorize the Selectmen to negotiate and determine
the rate of interest thereon and the maturity and other terms thereof, and to
take any other action they deem appropriate to effectuate the sale and/or
issuance of said bonds or notes, however, no such bonds or notes shall be
issued with a term of maturity of not less than ten (10) years or more than
fifteen (15) years, and additionally to raise and appropriate the sum of twelve
thousand dollars ($12,000.00) for the first year interest and costs. Land or
property interests to be purchased with bond proceeds shall be acquired in the
name of the Town by the Conservation Commission, subject to the approval of the
Selectmen, pursuant to RSA 36-A: 4. (Tax impact .02) (Recommended by
Selectmen)(Recommended by Budget Committee 7-2)(3/5 Vote Required)”
Mr. Yarmo addressed the television viewers and said that the Conservation Commission members had worked very hard to put this warrant article together. This was a joint effort of the Forestry Committee, Conservation Commission and concerned citizens who formed the Open Space group. He continued to say that we have done our homework that included detailed mapping of parcels that include protecting our groundwater and drinking water resources. Also, detailed mapping of farms and prime farmland soils and forested areas that help us identify and understand how to preserve Pelham’s wildlife corridors was done. These maps are constructed so that they can be overlaid on tax maps that help identify the parcels which gets us the most bang for the buck by not identifying house lots but identifying and preserving our forestry and farm land and protecting our water supply and creating recreational opportunities. There was also a build-out analysis done with data from the Conservation Commission along with Nashua Regional Planning Commission (NRPC). The study helped to understand the future growth, the timing of that growth and fiscal ramifications of that growth. In all probability it’s indicated that in 13 years or less the town of Pelham will be built out to 2,028 homes, a final population of almost 17,000 people with an additional 1,400 school aged children which is half again that of our current school system.
The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously, 4-0 to support
this warrant article. The Budget
Committee voted to support this bond with a
Deb Waters spoke about the build-out analysis. She began with the history of how the open space and conservation have tried to work together. About 10 years ago the Conservation Commission created a sub-committee to specifically look at open space issues and to begin to recommend how Pelham should move forward in the future. As a result of that effort the sub-committee started worked with NRPC, the REP program and proposing the Conservation Fund. One of the first purchases was the Wolven property, then purchasing Little Island Pond Conservation Land where it was possible to coordinate with neighbors, the developer and LCHIP for a grant. That project was brought to completion. What Pelham is experiencing now is the progression of the growth of this initiative. When this was first put into action it was unknown if it would even be successful or whether or not the town would be interested. We now have an established conservation fund and have landowners who are contacting us and landowners who are willing to work with us said Ms. Waters. She says the list keeps getting greater and greater. Ms. Waters said it’s amazing to see that small beginning and where we are now. The reason for the three million (3,000,000.00) dollar bond, in her mind, and how she looks at it, it’s a way to have another tool to use to work with landowners. It has become evident that we now have more people interested than the conservation fund can accommodate. The funds are only used if land becomes available. The build-out analysis was an important factor in determining where we were in terms of Pelham’s build-out. It had to be determined what remained and if there were enough landowners who might be interested to make it worthwhile. It is estimated that the year 2017 will be completely developed. We learned very early in the process that open space pays said Ms. Waters. Residential land is usually taxed negative – it usually cost more in services than it generates in income. Putting land into protection means tax rates stabilize. There is also the possibility of payback. The Master Plan also recommends protecting open space. Ms. Waters said the Commission/Open Space people have included selectmen, budget committee and the Planning Board who recommends protection of open space and purchase of land. We’ve also worked along with NRPC and have willing landowners but it is now up to the voters to decide if they want to fund these projects.
Paul Gagnon gave a slide presentation. He showed the homework that has been done with the aid of the slides/charts and numbers so that it’s not conceived as a ill-fated plan or some wild idea that is just going to be a waste of money.
Mr. Gagnon said there are two primary goals in protecting
open space; stabilize the tax rate and keep Pelham rural. You cannot just spend the money says Mr.
Gagnon. You must have willing landowners
and the price must have reasonable negotiations and pieces of land that are
worth buying. He says that this warrant article is an investment not a cost,
will pay itself back; both the 3 million dollars we spend, interest on the
three million and interest on that. This
is an investment for the town of
One of the main reasons for this 3-million dollar bond is
to use it as a main lever to protect an additional 1000 acres. If you take the 2,500 acres that is already
protected in one form or another, we are up to 3,500 acres but it does not quite
bring us up to the 25% of the town of
Mr. Gagnon went on to say the committee has put together an
aggressive plan. The sources of funds,
taking 2/3rds of the 3-million dollar bond, and make straight out-right
purchases, which we believe can be done at $7,000 per acre. Mr. Gagnon said he has backup to support his
statement: The Wolven
and Picard properties and sources outside the town
where this can happen, would protect 300-acres.
If the remaining 1/3rd of the bond was used to purchase
easements, this is a case where someone wants to maintain their land, they
might want to have a farm on it, or they might like to take some of the value
from the property, in that case the town would buy an easement that would say
the owner would never build on it but they could continue to own it and
continue to farm it. Mr. Gagnon gave the
example of Mack’s Apples in
Mr. Gagnon went on to say the plan to use the 3-million dollars will be spent over time as property becomes available. It will not happen in one year, it’s most likely to take 3 years, but more likely to take 5 years. We will not be borrowing money right up front, only if we get a deal then we will have a public hearing and the selectmen approve it, we will use a bond anticipation note to fund the project. We can take bonds out in steps so that the town is not paying back 3-million dollars all at once.
Mr. Gagnon refers this acquisition of land as an investment as growth is expensive. Pelham has had between 100 to 150 homes built every year since year 2000. Since that time the number of students in the schools is steadily growing, and so is the tax rate. The tax rate has grown between 5% and 10% a year over the last 4 years. Our taxes are growing at 2 to 3 times the rate of inflation. During this time homes are being built at a “frantic pace” said Mr. Gagnon. The more homes you put in the town the more services are demanded and the more taxes go up. There is data across the country showing that residential property does not pay itself back – it’s actually tax negative said Mr. Gagnon.
The build-out analysis states
that residential property in Pelham is 3% tax negative. Mr. Gagnon says by implementing this warrant
article/bond Pelham can save $140,000 in the first year and that number grows
every year forever, including interest.
The bond will be paid off somewhere between 10 and 15 years, the warrant
article leaves it up to the selectmen to decide. Each parcel must meet some selection criteria
which the Open Space Committee put together and have shared with the
selectmen. Each parcel must be reviewed
at a public hearing. The public gets to decide on every single parcel that is
being considered, whether to purchase or not.
Since year 2000 there are 19 towns that have taken out bonds to protect
open space. Unbridled growth has led to
tax increases, taxes going up
MINUTES: No review of minutes because of the lateness of the meeting.
MEETING ADJOURNED:
Respectfully submitted,
Glennie M. Edwards
Recording Secretary