Southborough committee targets EMC/Deerfoot/Bartolini parcels and betterment options for wastewater plant
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Summary
Committee discussed candidate sites (EMC/Dell parcels, Deerfoot Road and Bartolini land), leach-field sizing and financing tools including betterment and an internal parcel/GIS spreadsheet to support a FY27 town meeting ask.
The Town of Southborough wastewater committee focused on locating a feasible treatment and leaching site and refining financing tools for a sewer/district concept along Route 9. Members reviewed an 11-foot printed Route 9 map and an Al-created spreadsheet of parcels and agreed to expand the dataset and run GIS queries to prioritize parcels that could realistically connect.
Site candidates discussed included EMC/Dell-owned land, an MBTA parcel that previously drew developer interest, Deerfoot Road properties and land described as the Bartolini (Parleini) parcel. One committee member said some EMC/Dell parcels may be negotiable and could include bargaining chips such as road takeovers or easement transfers. The committee emphasized the need for permission to conduct soil/perk testing on candidate parcels as an immediate next step.
Technical sizing: Engineers on the committee shared a scaling example from a nearby Madison Place project: about 1 acre of leaching area supported ~27,900 gpd. Using that example, committee members estimated roughly 10 acres for a 300,000-gpd target under favorable soils; in poorer soils the requirement could rise toward ~30 acres. One member warned, ‘‘you really probably throw out the site’’ if many parcels show low percolation rates.
Financing and process notes: The committee reviewed the state betterment guidance and discussed staging betterment work once a site, system design and timeline are sufficiently developed. Members also noted developer mitigation contributions (cited: an example of $1.7 million in off-site infrastructure from a nearby project) and saw opportunities to combine town funds, potential state grants and developer contributions. The committee agreed to: - Expand the parcel spreadsheet with parcel numbers, ownership, acreage and estimated development/tax revenue value; - Run GIS color-coding to identify a priority district (likely focused on commercial/industrial parcels along Route 9 rather than broad residential zones); - Seek permissions and conduct perk/soil testing on candidate parcels during the near term; - Track tasks in a OneDrive repository with a read-only public reference to avoid open-meeting law issues.
The committee set the next meeting for Jan. 15 and adjourned after approving minutes and routine closing motions.