Standish Planning Board Meeting Minutes

 Standish Planning Board

Meeting Minutes

July 03, 2017

The Planning Board meeting was called to order by Adam Higgins. He said that the Board was down one Board member tonight and would need to elect a temporary Chairman for tonight’s meeting. He said that this meeting was supposed to be the election of a new Chair and Vice Chair, but not enough members are present to do so.

Mr. Willette nominated Mr. Higgins to chair the meeting tonight and this was seconded by Mr. Lonnstrom.  All in favor.

Mr. Higgins said that we will be going by a prepared agenda. He welcomed new Planning Board members Roland Cloutier and Gerald Lonnstrom.

Approval of meeting minutes from June 05, 2017

A motion was made by Mr. Willette and seconded by Mr. Cloutier to approve the meeting minutes as written. All in favor.

Approval of Finding of Fact:

Shaw Earthworks, Inc., 333 Pequawket Trail, Map 5, Lot 70-Site Plan Application for gravel pit expansion

A motion was made by Mr. Willette and seconded by Mr. Lonnstrom to approve the Finding of Fact as written.  All in favor.

Old Business:

Leavitt Earthworks, Boundary Road, Map 12, 13, Lots 4,5, 42B-5 year renewal of Gravel Pit(Gordon Brown Pit)

Peter Dalfonso from Dalfonso Engineering was present to represent Leavitt Earthworks. He gave a brief over view of what they are trying to accomplish with the renewal of the gravel pit. He said this pit is owned by the Brown Living Trust. He said the pit is being run in compliance with all regulations. He said they have about 13 acres that can be open and they have some of the pit to do some reclamation on.

Mr. Dalfonso said they have moved into Phase 2 and that is where they are operating. He said they have done some improvements on the berm since the last meeting and also some regrading has been done to improve the run off from the pit. He said he is open to answering any questions the Board may have. Mr. Higgins said he attended the site walk and it looked like the pit was doing fine. He said he feels the only outstanding issues are a culvert and also a roadway between the pits. Mr. Dalfonso said the culvert will be replaced and also the pipes would be larger with rip rap. He said this can be done quickly. Mr. Willette said he wasn’t at the site walk but is very familiar with the pit.

Mr. Benson said they are on the opposite side of the pit now and he thinks they are operating below the water table. He said in the original approval they had done some monitoring wells and also had done some elevations. He said they need to find the water level and stay five feet above it. Mr. Benson said they need to meet the standards that are currently in place. Mr. Higgins asked for comments from the Board.

Mr. Willette made a motion seconded by Mr. Lonnstrom to find the application complete. All in favor. Mr. Benson said he would go over his suggested conditions. The following are the suggested conditions of approval:

1.     Per code section 181-16 E. (2) Permit application requirements (f) depth to seasonal high water table: A minimum of three steel cased monitoring well with lockable cap will be installed within the pit floor of each pit, with one additional well per 5 acres of open pit. A minimum of three of these wells must reach into the water table to determine a plane surface. Well depth will reach a minimum of 17 feet below the pit floor in that area or 5 ft. into the ground water table whichever is less. These new monitoring wells shall be installed around the proposed toe of slope as shown on the reclamation grading plan. The applicant has installed monitoring well #6 in phase #2 just up-stream of the proposed stream crossing at the stream 75 ft. setback. The applicant shall install a minimum of two additional monitoring wells within the phase 2 pit expansion.  One well shall be installed near the downstream limits of the pit near the 75 ft. stream setback.  Additional wells shall be installed on the easterly end of the pit near the finish grade bottom of excavation at the toe of slope elevation 317 below/downhill of the 150 property line setback.  The integrity of the monitoring wells shall be             maintained during excavation activity.  Any well damaged or removed shall be replaced within 30 days of such damage or removal.  The location of the well shall be in the same general vicinity as the damaged or removed well. All wells shall be monitored by the pit operator and reported to the CEO by April 30 of each spring. There will be two additional monitoring wells in place by October 02, 2017on the easterly end of the pit, and reports of the water tables will be turned into the Town no later than April 30th of each spring.

2.     Per code section 181-16 E. (2) Permit application requirements (l) Performance Guarantee: A performance bond in the amount of $40,300.00 is required to the satisfaction of the Town Manager. This amount assumes a cost of $3100 acre for a total of 13 acres. This includes only 10 acres of working /-non-reclaimed pit plus 3 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. 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.

3.    Per code section 181-16 E. (3) Plan Review (b)[9] The temporary 2 ft. diameter stream crossing shall be removed and replaced with a 3 ft. diameter culvert with riprap outlet apron as shown on engineers plan. This culvert will need to be in place by October 02, 2017.

4.     Per code section 181-16 E. (4) Excavation Regulations (f): Per the topography on the original approved Brown pit plan, the elevation of the stream near the crossing appears to be at elevation 317 and pit floor 2 ft. above that at elevation 217. Because the applicant appears to be operating below elevation 317 and has not submitted adequate data to confirm the elevation of the seasonal high water table during the initial approval thus if the annual monitoring well logs, as described in the previous condition of approval, from a minimum of three monitoring wells per pit, are not submitted annually prior to the payment for annual inspection then an additional fee of $500 shall be assessed over and above the normal inspection fee to cover cost of hiring a hydrologist to obtain groundwater information. Seasonal high water within all monitoring wells should be observed and reported by a registered professional engineer, geologist or by the applicant. Annual records of the seasonal high water table elevation shall be kept by the applicant and submitted to the town prior to annual CEO permit renewal. This monitoring well report must be certified each spring for the seasonal high water table elevations for the existing monitoring wells and all new wells. All groundwater level data shall be submitted to the Town and the MDEP by April 30th of each spring.

5.      Per code section 181-16 E (4) Excavation Regulations. Blaze property lines shall be created along property lines within 200 ft. of all proposed pit areas.

6.     Per code section 181-16 E. Type 3 operations (5) rehabilitation requirements: This approval is for mineral extraction only. The limit of extraction is the same as the reclamation plan for Gordon Brown as revised 12/16/02, however, the approval is for excavation five feet above seasonal high water table only. Once seasonal high water is determined, the reclamation plan will be modified and pit floor elevations must remain five feet above the high water table. The project would be in two phases. The first phase to be 12.8 acres, the second would be the remainder. In no case shall the total area needing reclamation exceed 13 acres. This includes only 10 acres of working pit and associated on site non-vegetated storage areas and stockpiles.

7.      Per code section 181-16 E. (5) Loaming and seeding must be established for a minimum of 18 months. In no case shall the total area needing reclamation exceed 13 acres. This includes the working pit and associated on site non-vegetated storage areas roads and stockpiles.

8.     Per code section 181-16 E (5) Rehabilitation requirements (f) Grading E&S:  In addition to any specific erosion control measures described in the plans, the applicant shall take all necessary actions to ensure that their activities or those of their agents do not result in noticeable erosion of soils or fugitive dust emissions on the site during the construction and operation of the project covered by this approval.

9.      Per code section 181-16.1 Blasting: No blasting for mineral extraction within the pit without a town approved blasting permit.

10.    The Conditions of Approval are to appear on the final plan.

11.   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 are subject to review and approval by the Planning Board, except for minor changes which the Code Enforcement Officer may approve.

Mr. Higgins said he had a question on #2, the elevation that says 217, he thinks it should be 317. Mr. Benson agreed and the error was corrected. He said the stream that’s adjacent is where they have crossed it and in his opinion, they are a little bit below the elevation. He said the elevation was determined by a ground water study. Mr. Higgins asked how they can proceed with more extraction without having any water data. Mr. Benson said he is not disagreeing but he said he saw no evidence this spring that the pit had any water in it and he sees no evidence that they are below the five foot buffer from the pit floor. Mr. Higgins said he still doesn’t see how they can determine the table with no information and Mr. Benson said he can’t say if they are or they aren’t.

Mr. Lonnstrom said he feels the same way and do they proceed with giving them certain dates to meet. Mr. Benson said they could do it that way. He said this plan has been dated the same since 2003 and this pit will be out there for many more years, so telling them to get more elevation information is okay. He said the Board needs to set the conditions, put a time frame in if they want to and let them know what they expect. Mr. Benson said setting a date is appropriate and being date specific is fine. Mr. Cloutier said they need to put something into place like an October date. The Board decided on an October 2nd date of this year. Mr. Cloutier said they have to vote to accept and implement the conditions they set forth. The October 2nd date in on condition #1. The April date is in condition #1 and #4. The October 2nd date is also for condition #3 for replacing the culvert.

Mr. Benson said the wells need to be upstream and downstream, plus on the toe of slope of the pit. These will be placed in those areas as it would be easier and would prevent the operators of the pit from hitting them. The wells have to be reported to the CEO in the spring. Mr. Benson said one of the problems with gravel pits is trying to get them to submit their water tables and monitoring reports.  Mr. Benson said that the dates they had on another pit were set by DEP.  He said it basically meant spring (annually), or sometime in the spring.

Mr. Cloutier made a motion seconded by Mr. Lonnstrom that the application be approved with the suggested conditions of approval with some added conditions and some changes.   All in favor.  The applicant is approved.

New Business :

Brad & Cindy Sloat, Watchic Road 19/Rt.113, Map 30, Lot 39-Shoreland Zoning Application

Per an email that Mr. Benson received today, this application was requested to be tabled until next month.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:50pm.