Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Floodplain Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Neighbors press flood‑risk questions as ZBA renotices rehearing for Gumwood Drive lots
Summary
At a rehearing on two Gumwood Drive lots, neighbors reported repeated flooding and asked whether raising building pads will push water onto adjacent properties. The ZBA agreed further study and renoticing are required and adjourned the public hearing to Dec. 16.
The Zoning Board opened a continuation of rehearings for two lots on Gumwood Drive (Myers Estates) to clarify floodplain‑related variance relief and whether any relief should be dimensionally limited and subject to planning‑board review.
Counsel and staff explained the unusual procedural history: the subdivision dates to the early 1970s and some later floodplain overlay rules were adopted after the lots were created. That history raises questions about whether modern lot‑calculation rules (subtracting wetlands and floodplain from buildable area) apply and whether the board should treat certain relief as an interpretation or as formal variances requiring renotice.
Neighbor Holly Kolb told the board her property at 4 Gumwood abuts the site and has ‘‘flooded considerably’’ in heavy rain; she asked whether raising new lots would shift water onto her yard. Staff explained compensatory storage plans under a floodplain development permit — including excavating a third lot to offset fill — and said the town would require compensatory storage calculations and a floodplain development permit at later stages.
Given the technical questions and the need to properly notice additional relief types, the board opened the public hearing portion, heard neighbors, and voted to adjourn the hearing to Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. for further study and renotification.
