Applicant for private dog park at 1380 Main Street told to revise stormwater and parking plans

The Planning Board continued a public hearing March 4 on a special permit with site plan approval for a proposed private dog park at 1380 Main Street (Map 21, Parcel 17). The applicant’s team presented a redevelopment plan that would convert an existing industrial building and surrounding paved/gravel areas into a private dog park with on-site parking and stormwater controls.

Matthew Watzke, counsel for the applicant, said the application follows a fall town meeting amendment that added “private dog park” as a use by special permit. David Lapp, the applicant and prospective owner, and engineers from LAL Engineering described an approximately 1.5-acre site currently covered by asphalt, broken asphalt and compacted gravel. The proposal calls for an expansion and reconfiguration of parking to provide 43 spaces (including two accessible spaces), installation of BMPs — French drains, deep-sump area drains, sediment basins — and an expanded on-site infiltration area. The applicant also proposed artificial turf for the rear outdoor play surface (pet-grade turf with sand infill and stone base) and LED, full-cutoff lighting.

Board reviewer Mike (consultant) and planning staff raised two central issues: stormwater treatment that relies in part on an existing depression and infiltration area currently located in the Route 109 town right-of-way, and whether parking layouts would force vehicles to back into a private way or future travelway. The peer-review consultant and town staff said stormwater measures that encroach on the municipal right-of-way would create setbacks and maintenance complications; work within the right-of-way could require an easement and Town Meeting action and may not meet required property-line setbacks under the town’s stormwater guidance. The engineers said proposed on-site infiltration would increase infiltration, reduce peak discharge (engineer estimated a reduced peak for a 100-year event), and reduce total suspended solids by about 80 percent, but acknowledged full stormwater treatment volume could not be met and that DEP redevelopment standards call for meeting requirements to the maximum extent practicable.

On parking, planning staff asked the applicant to provide documentation of rights to the private way that traverses the site and to show how tanker trucks, deliveries and future uses of the private way would be handled. The applicant reported the layout would provide a 24-foot access aisle and sought a waiver to use 9-by-19-foot stalls (they stated they would plan to provide 9-by-19 stalls rather than 9-by-18). Board members and reviewers warned that shifting parking into the engineered infiltration area to meet setbacks could reduce usable parking and asked the team to explore moving parking into the turf/play area or redesigning the layout to keep infiltration on private property.

Other items discussed included snow storage locations, dumpster placement (applicant proposed moving the dumpster pad five feet from the building), lumen/lighting plans, landscaping buffer enhancement in the 100-foot buffer to bordering vegetated wetland, and accessibility requirements. The applicant estimated the daycare capacity at about 30 dogs at a time in the daycare area and up to 40 in the park area, and said the building could potentially accommodate up to about 200 people but that actual occupancy and parking needs will be determined during the building-permit review process.

The board did not vote to approve the project; members continued the public hearing to April 8 at 7:35 p.m., and asked the applicant to return with revised plans, documentation of rights to the private way, clarified stormwater calculations and a response to peer-review comments. The board emphasized the need to avoid work that would obligate the town to maintain stormwater infrastructure located in the public right-of-way unless appropriate easements and agreements are in place.