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Zoning board approves 62-unit Old Colony Avenue development; engineer says stormwater chambers will reduce peak runoff
Summary
The Quincy Zoning Board of Appeals approved Walliston Assets LLC's plan for a five-story, 62-unit residential building at 18 Old Colony Avenue and reviewed a stormwater chamber design the applicant says will store runoff up to the two-year storm with no outflow and reduce peak discharge for larger storms.
The Quincy Zoning Board of Appeals on Sept. 9 authorized Walliston Assets LLC to construct a five-story, 62-unit residential building with 98 parking spaces at 18 Old Colony Avenue and reviewed the developer’s stormwater plan for adjacent properties.
Civil engineer Carlos Sculte of Civil and Environmental Consultants told the board the existing site drains untreated overland to a paved parking area behind nearby retail, and the proposal introduces a subsurface stormwater chamber system between the building and Old Colony Avenue that will accept runoff from roofs and parking. "That system is then designed to reduce the peak rates," Sculte said, describing reductions for the 2-, 10-, 25- and 100-year storms. He said the system will store all runoff up to the two-year storm event with no outflow, and that proposed peak discharge rates for the 10-, 25- and 100-year storms are lower than existing conditions.
Sculte gave the board specific modeled flows: under existing conditions the rear-of-lot flow was about 1.1 cubic feet per second (cfs), reduced to 0.1 cfs in the proposed condition for minor events; for a 10-year storm he cited a reduction from 2.2 cfs to 1.1 cfs, a small reduction at the 25-year event and a decrease from 3.6 cfs to 3.4 cfs in a 100-year event.
Board members asked whether the project would tie into the municipal storm system; Sculte said there would be no direct pipe connection and that, as today, much of the runoff goes overland into the adjacent parking areas and some dry wells that may not be functioning. "Some of them recharge on-site. The ones that are in that parking lot that don't go anywhere, they haven't been maintained in forever and they don't really work," Sculte said.
After the engineering presentation the board considered a separate petition to allow the five-story residential building. A board member moved to allow the petition; another seconded and the motion carried. Several board members said they would vote in favor based on the engineering work and the developer’s plan to manage on-site stormwater.
The project will provide 98 parking spaces; board discussion noted that the reduced discharge rates should lessen downstream flooding impacts. The board did not attach additional conditions to the motion recorded in the hearing transcript; DPW comments were referenced elsewhere in meeting correspondence.
The two items — the stormwater design presentation and the variance/special permit for the five-story building — were presented by counsel Edward Fleming and by Carlos Sculte for the developer, and both matters were approved by the board during the Sept. 9 meeting.
