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Planning board approves waiver to allow overhead utilities for Salmon Falls Road subdivision
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Summary
The Rochester Planning Board approved a waiver allowing overhead utilities for two lots on Salmon Falls Road after the applicant said undergrounding would require wetland disturbance; planning staff recommended denial citing the city’s 20-year undergrounding requirement. The board split, recording two nays before approving the waiver.
The Rochester Planning Board on March 2 approved a request to waive the city’s underground-utilities requirement for two lots at 871 Salmon Falls Road, a change the applicant said avoids additional wetland disturbance and aligns the subdivision with existing overhead service along the corridor.
The applicant, Peter Rizzo, told the board the frontage subdivision connects to an established roadway where most homes use overhead service and that trenching to install underground lines would cause off-site impacts and disturbance to wetlands. “Along the approximately 3-mile stretch of Salmon Falls Road, there are roughly 113 homes and only three have underground electrical service,” Rizzo said, arguing the waiver would not change the corridor’s character and that the subdivision does not create new roads or internal utility corridors.
Planning staff recommended denying the waiver. A staff representative told the board that underground utilities have been required in the subdivision regulations for more than 20 years and that the applicant had not provided adequate justification; staff emphasized the safety and resilience benefits of placing lines underground and noted that trenching for underground service is feasible and wetland impacts can be avoided.
Board discussion focused on precedent and practical constraints. One board member said the existing overhead poles predate the city’s current requirements and that similar waivers had been granted in past circumstances when road paving made undergrounding impractical. Another board member raised concern that approving the waiver could undercut the regulation’s long-standing intent.
After a motion and vote, the board approved the waiver; the transcript records two nays (identified in the meeting as Zeb and Hammond) and the motion carried. The board continued the application process to the May 4 planning-board meeting in an earlier related item to allow the zoning board to resolve a separate appeal about the project’s use classification.
What happens next: the zoning-board appeal (filed after staff applied an office/medical use category) will determine the use classification; once the zoning determination is final the planning-board review will continue as needed. Any conditions, plan revisions, or requirements tied to environmental permitting will be handled as part of the ordinary subdivision review process.
