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Standish Planning Board Meeting Minutes

Meeting date: 
Monday, November 2, 2020

Standish Planning Board

                                                                       Meeting Minutes

                                                                     November 02, 2020

 

The meeting of the Standish Planning Board was called to order at 6:00pm by Chairman Charles Brown. Present were Frank Nappi, Jolene Whittemore, Phil Pomerleau, Deb Boxer, Town Planner Zach Mosher and Jackie Dyer, admin. to the Town Planner and Planning Board. Absent was Cheryl Kimball.

Open Meeting

           a.        Call to order-Chairman Brown

           b.       Opening Statement from Planning Board Chairman Charles Brown

           c.        Declaration of a Quorum (5)

 

Approval of Meeting Minutes from October 05, 2020

 

Mrs. Whittemore made a motion seconded by Mrs. Boxer to approve the meeting minutes as written. All in favor.

 

Approval of Finding of Fact:

 

  • Town of Standish,150 Moody Road, Map 14, Lot 4 (Dept. Of Public Works) Site Plan Application for a new sand shed

 

Mrs. Whittemore made a motion seconded by Mr. Nappi to approve the Finding of Fact. All in favor.

 

Old Business:

 

 

Steve Blais from Blais Civil Engineers was present as well as Larry Grondin, CEO of Grondin Aggregates, LLC. Mr. Brown said that a site walk was done on October 26,2020.

He said there were no members of the public and 5 Planning Board members.

 

Steve Blais said this is a 124-acre gravel pit and he felt they had nothing new to add to the application from the last meeting. He said they have answered the peer review questions and are ready for any questions from the Board. Mrs. Boxer asked about the trees being planted and Mr. Blais said they had spoken with DEP and will do whatever DEP requests them to do.  Mrs. Boxer asked who he spoke with and Mr. Blais said the Director Mike Clark and Eric Cluck who is one of the State Inspectors. Mrs. Boxer asked if they had come out and inspected this site and he said they were there he believes last year. Mr. Blais said this is a general permit that applies to many gravel pits and they come out from time to time. Mrs. Boxer asked how many acres were open and Mr. Grondin and Mr. Blais agreed it was two acres. Mr. Brown said there is a stockpile of loam for reclamation and he found they pull from different areas as they need to. Mr. Grondin said their pit is on Middle Road and not to be con fused with the pit on Rt.113 that is Shaw Earthworks. Mrs. Boxer said she thinks that is the one she was looking at.

 

Mrs. Boxer said she is trying to understand how a gravel pit works and is ten acres reclaimed before they move onto another 10 acres. Mr. Blais said yes, that is what they do. Mr. Brown said they cannot exceed 10 open acres at a time. He said before you can proceed you have to close some of what is open and not go over the limit. Mr. Blais said they replant before they open more. Mrs. Boxer said she is talking about the Gorham Sand and Gravel pit and how it looks like they have way more open than 10 acres. Mr. Brown said you can have 30 open with a special exception from DEP and they may have that. Mr. Blais said they do not have that. Mr. Grondin said it is easier and better financially if they close some of the pit before they open more.

 

Mr. Brown said Mrs. Harmon was concerned at the last meeting about trucks going over Middle Road. He said that it is pretty evident to him that the Grondin trucks are using the entrance and exit onto Rt.113 and it is not their trucks going over Middle Road. Mr. Grondin said they do not use any other entrance or exit, and they do not want to go over any other portion of Middle Road. He said they prefer to come onto a State road.

 

Mr. Brown asked about the monitoring wells as mentioned in Mr. Mosher’s memo. Mr. Blais said they will have one metal and one plastic one with a steel cap over it. Mr. Boxer asked if the DEP is the one that determines whether the land has any animal habitat on it and plant habitation. Mr. Blais said they hired a gentleman, Rich Jordan, and he mapped all the sensitive areas on the property like streams or other. Mr. Brown said they usually run their applications by the Dept. Of Inland Fisheries and it was determined they have no vernal pools or endangered species of any kind on site.

 

Mr. Mosher asked about the requirements of reclamation and does the mixture they use have seeds for trees and other plants in it. Mr. Blais said yes it does and the other surrounding trees will reseed themselves too. Mrs. Boxer said that the pit on Rt.114 has an invasive plant growing in it and is essentially bare. Mr. Brown asked for other comments or concerns and there were none. Mr. Brown asked for a motion to find the application complete. Mr. Pomerleau made a motion seconded by Mrs. Whittemore to find the application complete. All in favor.

 

Mr. Brown said that in the Standards and Conditions of Approval he has no comments and agrees with what is there. Under the conditions of approval, he sees a few things that need to be covered. Item 3 needed a revision to Rt.113, item 4 needs a revision of 25 feet instead of 50 and item five needed a revision that there will be two monitoring wells. Mr. Blais said one would be steel and one plastic if that is acceptable. They do put a steel sleeve over it for stabilization and so that no one can vandalize it. Item 7 should be letter of credit or reclamation bond.

Mr. Pomerleau said that #11 should say that no one should ever go over Middle Road with gravel deliveries or trying to exit to another site quicker like Boundary Road or Rt.114. He said going over Middle Road would save miles but should not be allowed. Mr. Blais asked if it could say deliveries only to people on Middle Road that have property. Mr. Blais said that he was trying to prevent a problem with people that wanted to buy from Grondin, and Mr. Pomerleau said that he was trying to prevent a problem for the Town. Mr. Grondin said that if there is a subdivision a half mile away, they would like to be able to do possibly do those projects. But he said that trying to get out to Boundary Road or elsewhere is not allowed by their company and never has been. Mrs. Whittemore asked if they could just put deliveries on Middle Road only. Mr. Blais said that only on Middle Road properties would work for them.

 

Mr. Brown said if they had a project on Middle Road, would that be a change needed to come back before the Board. Mr. Pomerleau said that if they just say Middle Road property deliveries only, that makes sense and would work. Mr. Brown asked for other comments or concerns and there were none.

 

Mr. Brown read the following:

 

IV. Planning Board Vote – If the Planning Board is amenable, make a motion that the application submitted Steve Blais of Blais Engineering, on behalf of Grondin Aggregates LLC, for a gravel pit expansion at Middle Rd (Map 9, Lot 15 and Lot 28) meets all the necessary  requirements of Chapter 181 including but not limited to Sec 181-16 and Sec 181-73 (Site Plan Conditions of Approval) of the Standish Land Use code and is based on the conditions of approval outlined below, along with any other conditions raised by the Planning Board.

Mr. Pomerleau asked if they needed to vote on the changes or were these just modifications. Mrs. Whittemore said they were mostly modifications, but Mr. Pomerleau made a motion to approve the changes made and Mrs. Boxer seconded these. All in favor.

Mr. Pomerleau made a motion to approve the application with all changes and this was seconded by Mr. Brown. All in favor and project was approved with the following:

V. CONDITIONS –

  1. The applicant has filed a Notice of Intent To Comply application with Maine DEP for the proposed expansion; the applicant is limited to work in Phase I and Phase II until the Phase III and Phase IV expansions and proposed Phase V, Phase, VI, Phase VII and Phase VIII excavation areas are approved by through a Maine DEP excavation permit.

 

  1. Daily hours of operation shall be limited to no more than 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday to Friday; 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturdays; and no Sunday operations.

 

  1. There is a gate on the pit access road near Rt. 114. If the access road serves other purposes a new gate should be installed at the pit.

 

  1. The 150' setback to the northeast property line was waived; a 25' setback was required. Only clean fill that would not pollute the groundwater may be used to bring the pit 2.5:1 side slope to reclamation grade.

  

  1. A minimum of one steel cased monitoring well and one out of another material, with lockable cap will be installed per phase within the pit floor. Well depth will reach a minimum of 10 feet below the lowest elevation within that phase or into the ground-water table.

 

 

  1. Seasonal high water within all monitoring wells must be observed and reported during the pit’s annual inspection. Annually records of the seasonal high-water table elevation should be established and submitted to the town prior to annual CEO permit renewal. This monitoring well report must be certified each spring the seasonal high-water table elevations for the two existing monitoring wells and a new well to be located near or within wetland along northerly lot boundary. Prior to expanding into the Village Center District, toward White Brothers pit, a drill well will be installed to explore the depth to seasonal high water within that area prior to excavating into the water table.

 

  1. A letter of credit or reclamation bond would be established to the satisfaction of the Planning Board Administrator This includes only 10 acres of working non-reclaimed pit plus 1 acre for aggregate storage that will need to be reclaimed once the piles are removed. Adequate clean material shall be retained on site to reclaim pit to grades shown on reclamation plan. Bond language will need a review by our town lawyer as to legal sufficiency.

 

  1. Approval is for excavation five feet above seasonal high-water table only. Once seasonal high water is determined the site plan will be modified and pit floor elevations must remain five feet above the high-water table.

 

 

  1. Topsoil shall not be removed from the site but shall be retained on site for reclamation. Adequate loam to cover all reclamation needs shall be retained on site for the purpose of reclamation. A minimum of 550 CY of loam per acre of reclamation shall be preserved on site or hauled to the site and then retained on site for the required reclamation.

 

  1. No blasting permitted without separate Planning Board approval.

 

  1. No gravel will be hauled over Middle Road except for Middle Road properties only.

 

  1. This approval is dependent upon, and limited to, the proposals and plans contained in the application and supporting documents submitted and affirmed by the applicant (either orally or in writing) and that any variation from the plans, proposals, and supporting documents is subject to review and approval by the Planning Board, except for minor changes which the Code Enforcement Officer may approve.

 

  1.  Blaze the property lines at minimum 100’ intervals along the areas adjacent to existing and proposed pit, if not already done.

 

  1. This approval is for mineral extraction only. Once seasonal high water is determined, the site plan will be modified, and pit floor elevations must remain five feet above the high-water table. Limit of excavation is the same as the reclamation plan. Thickness of loam and clay material layer not to exceed a depth of 3 feet. Only clean fill that would not pollute the groundwater may be used to bring the pit 2.5:1 side slope to reclamation grade.

 

  1. No more than two of the eight phases shall be disturbed prior to reclamation of a prior phase.

 

  1. This approval is subject to Maine Department of Environmental Protection approval of the 2006 Town Council approved shoreland zoning map amendment.

 

  1. Rehabilitation requirements. Any operation shall be deemed closed 90 days after its permit expires or the operations cease for one year. The site shall be rehabilitated in accordance with this subsection. The rehabilitation plan year of closing. Rehabilitation of continuing operations shall be conducted in phases. The following requirements shall be met:

 

  1. Specific plans shall be established to avoid hazards from excessive slopes. Where an embankment remains after the completion of operations, it shall be graded at a slope not steeper than one foot vertical to 2.5 feet horizontal, unless otherwise allowed by the owner's/operator's DEP permit.

 

  1. Seeding and/or planting and loaming or equivalent, as approved in the rehabilitation plan, shall be accomplished so that exposed areas are stabilized, and erosion is minimized. Retained topsoil shall be used as loam. These areas shall be guaranteed for 18 months, during which time the surety bond shall remain in full force and effect.

 

  1. The Board may require that trees be planted for a visual buffer between the project and adjacent properties if a natural buffer does not exist.

 

  1. Stripping’s shall be redistributed over the excavated area, removed from the parcel, burned, chipped or otherwise disposed of as approved in Maine DEP regulations. Tree stumps and grubbing from the site may be used to stabilize the banks. The areas of excavation with solid or broken ledge rock shall be trimmed of loose rock and the bottom of the excavation graded to be compatible with the surroundings.

 

  1. The operation shall be contoured so that sediment is not directed into streams or drainageways.

 

  1. Grading and restoration shall be completed in such a manner that it will ensure appropriate drainage, prevent standing water and minimize erosion and sedimentation.

 

 

Meeting was adjourned at 6:32pm