Conservation commission continues hearing on 25 Milk Street, votes to open 53G peer‑review account

The Town of Blackstone Conservation Commission on Wednesday continued a public hearing on a proposed single‑family house at 25 Milk Street and voted unanimously to open a 53G account to collect fees for a peer review.

The hearing matters because nearby residents had raised concerns about drainage and wetlands impacts; commission members asked the applicant to provide a revised plan, and the commission established a town account to streamline payment to an independent peer reviewer.

Bruce Wilson, principal with New England Environmental Design, told the commission he had revised the plan after the last meeting and added stormwater measures and plantings. "I put in a curtain drain and I'm showing 12 tree plantings to, try to restore some of the trees that were cut prior to the gaskill zoning the property there," Wilson said. He described the curtain drain as "a stone trench. It's 3 feet wide and 2 and a half feet with, 3 inch minus rock in it. And then at the last 6 inches would be inch and a half just to keep any silt and stuff from getting down into it." He said a 4‑inch Schedule 40 PVC perforated pipe at the bottom would collect and direct water under the driveway to the existing wetland area.

Ashton Gasco, who identified himself as an owner of 25 Milk Street, said the owners plan to "take care of the place, make it look nice, raise their family here." Wilson said the proposed building was shown as a box on the plan and that architectural drawings were not finished; he said the plan used a roughly 60‑by‑60 box (he also described the house as "about 70" in another exchange), and that the lot is roughly five acres.

Commission members asked about the wetland flagging and the wetland biologist. Wilson said the flags were done by a wetland biologist on the applicant's team, "Zachary Mann," and that the biologist's work appears in the report. The commission discussed a site visit and agreed staff should review the revised plan in the field.

Commissioner (unnamed) moved that the commission "open up a 53 g account for this property so we could" collect fees for a peer reviewer; the motion was seconded and approved unanimously. The account is intended to enable the town to accept the applicant's payment and pay the peer reviewer directly; the commission did not specify a fee amount at the meeting.

The commission discussed its limited pool of peer reviewers and potential vendors; Wilson offered to help assemble sample language and suggested towns he works with use firms such as Avicinus or the Beta Group. The commission asked staff (Brandon) to receive the revised plan and pursue peer‑review arrangements.

The hearing remains continued to allow the peer review and any required field review by staff.