Planning board grants conditional final approval for amended site plan at 7 Crows Nest Circle

The Merrimack Planning Board voted unanimously Tuesday to grant conditional final approval to an amended site plan for a warehouse/manufacturing property at 7 Crows Nest Circle. The applicant, identified in the record as Ashok Rampuria with owner UTI Properties MHT LLC, sought to reduce building depth, expand mezzanine space and add parking as part of a phase‑2 amendment.

Board members deferred the application at a May hearing to allow staff to obtain a peer review from Fuss & O'Neil. At Tuesday’s meeting Casey, planning staff, told the board that Fuss & O'Neil had identified a possible increase in post‑development flow but that the applicant’s engineer had contacted staff the same day saying the discrepancy may result from an error in the predevelopment baseline used in the drainage report. Fuss & O'Neil had not yet received corrected calculations, Casey said.

Matt Ruth, an engineer with TF Moran representing the applicant, told the board the project’s previously approved Alteration of Terrain (AOT) drainage calculations already accounted for a small increase associated with Crow’s Nest Road and that the additional pavement in the amendment (roughly 3,000 square feet, he said) will drain to an on‑site underground infiltration system with no secondary discharge. Ruth read the peer‑review point labels (POIB/POIC/POIF) and confirmed flow units are cubic feet per second; he said the changes are minimal in the 2‑ and 10‑year events and unchanged from the 2023 approval.

The board pressed for clarity on two technical points. First, members asked whether Fuss & O'Neil had seen corrected numbers; staff said not yet. Second, Ruth asked the board to consider a waiver to permit shallower storm piping cover than the town regulation requires: the town requires 3 feet of cover, the pipe manufacturer’s guidance lists 1 foot as adequate, and Ruth said the team is proposing a minimum cover of 1.5 feet in constrained locations. Ruth estimated more than 100 feet of pipe runs could be at the reduced cover adjacent to structures and offered to provide manufacturer documentation. Fuss & O'Neil’s peer‑review note on the cover question said the detail should be reviewed.

The board acknowledged the peer‑review concerns but — after asking the applicant to add a plan note committing to address all peer review and DPW comments — moved to grant conditional final approval “subject to the recommended conditions presented in the staff memo dated 05/16/2025.” Board member Lynn made the motion; the board voted 7–0 to approve the motion.

No abutters spoke at the meeting. The approval is conditional on the applicant resolving outstanding peer‑review items and any DPW or Conservation Commission requirements identified during the plan‑check process.

The Planning Board’s action was recorded as a conditional final approval; the applicant and town staff will proceed to finalize plan notes and technical responses to peer review prior to issuance of final permits.