Drainage plans for Marlborough Road property creates heated discussion

The Conservation Commission continued their discussion of a construction project at 125 Marlborough Road on Thursday evening. The project will demolish the existing house and construct two single-family houses in its place. Due to the construction’s proximity to vegetative wetland, the Conservation Commission needs to approve the plans. Prior to the meeting, the plans were reviewed and approved by the city engineering department.

The commission opened a public hearing on the matter, taking place over Zoom, to hear the thoughts of an abutter, whose son had sent pictures from 2023 of their flooded backyard to the commission. She expressed concern that the planned drainage system and soil disruption due to construction at 125 Marlborough Road would result in more flooding on her property.

When applicant Paul Keating attempted to explain the function of the drainage system, she told him, “I know who you are and I don’t trust you.” 

When the project’s wetlands consultant Debbie Anderson attempted to explain other details, the abutter accused Anderson of trespassing on her property. Anderson explained that she had been on property telling the abutter’s son that he could not dump lawn debris into a wetlands area when she was initially accused of trespassing. 

The abutter spoke over several commissioners who were trying to discuss the matter with her, and was eventually muted by the meeting’s host. Commissioner Lisa Limonciello addressed her conduct, saying that it was highly inappropriate and offensive to those who worked hard on the project plans.

Commission chair Bill Doyle explained to the abutter that her house was within the flood line provided by FEMA, and that her yard would flood regardless of what was done on the adjacent property. Commissioner Gerry Dufromont further explained to her that the drainage system on 125 Marlborough Road would also protect her property by reducing the amount of water above ground by storing it in buried concrete tanks.

The commission moved to continue discussion of the project at its Dec. 4 meeting to give the abutter time to discuss her concerns with the engineering department. If it is deemed that there are changes needed to the plans, the engineering department will request those changes.

In other business, the commission moved to continue discussion of:

• Changes to the house at 94 Hardy Pond Road to the Dec. 4 meeting to allow time for the construction plans for the property to be sent to the city engineering department for comment.
• A building department violation for a commission-requested rain garden at 171 Copeland St. to the Dec. 4 meeting. The finished rain garden on the property was smaller than the one previously approved by the commission. A suggested solution was to reduce the size of the property’s driveway to allow for more drainage, but property owner Bubchull Kim had concerns about the expense involved with that. Kim did not want to expand the rain garden because he felt it worked fine as it was and may make playing in the backyard unsafe for his grandchildren if made bigger. The commission requested that the project’s civil engineer Tony Esposito discuss the permeability rate of the soil in the rain garden with the city engineering department to see what can be done about the size of the rain garden before the next meeting.