Council approves Mill Street Gardens special permit; conservation commissioners and council add rodent-control and maintenance conditions

The Woburn City Council on April 15 granted a special permit to Mill Street Gardens LLC for multiple buildings and a pool complex at 50 Mill Street, and the council attached a set of conditions addressing site plan, construction, maintenance and rodent control.

The council adopted a site-plan-of-record (dated Feb. 13, 2025) as the first condition. It also voted that the pool house "will be maintained in perpetuity," and it added new rodent-control conditions proposed during the public hearing. Those rodent measures require a current rodent-activity report to be provided to the council and the Board of Health prior to construction, limit rodent-control products to vitamin D3 baits and snap traps unless an "infestation or an uptick of existing rodent activity" occurs, and require rodent-control maintenance reports to be submitted quarterly to the Board of Health.

Attorney Jesse Schumer represented the applicant and said the project team reviewed proposed conditions and accepted them. Engineer Chris Speradjes told the council the applicant would install a private 2-inch water service tapping a new 8-inch water main on Mill Street, that the property owner will maintain the service out to the main per DPW request, that any work in the public right-of-way would be repaired and repaved, and that the applicant would TV-inspect the sewer tie-in and trace existing utilities as requested by the DPW superintendent (Jay Duran). The council added the three DPW conditions from an April 15 memo to the permit.

Conservation Commission members who spoke urged limits on second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides. Commissioner Jerry Launas told the council the commission had recently added a condition to new projects restricting those baits until less-toxic measures are tried. Commissioner Jim Joyce presented a multi-point integrated pest-management approach and told the council, "Rodents want 3 things. They They want food, water, and shelter," and he recommended tamper-resistant bait stations, snap traps, and vitamin D3 products over second-generation anticoagulants because vitamin D3 has a much shorter environmental half-life and lower risk of secondary poisoning to raptors and other wildlife.

Council members discussed enforcement and monitoring language; counsel and the applicant agreed to quarterly reporting to the Board of Health and to require a pre-construction activity report. The council also required that dumpsters be placed on private property and limits on dumpster emptying hours (no emptying before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m.), as listed in the project conditions.

After discussion and amendment, the council voted to grant the special permit subject to the re-numbered and expanded conditions (site-plan of record dated 02/13/2025; pool house maintenance in perpetuity; rodent-control plan limiting products to vitamin D3 or snap traps unless infestation occurs and quarterly reports to Board of Health; and the three DPW-specified conditions). The chair announced the vote: "All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?" and the motion passed.

The permit file will include DPW's April 15 memo conditions and the rodent-control reporting requirement; the Board of Health and Conservation Commission will receive copies of monitoring reports required by the decision.