Planning Board grants waivers and deems 13 Veil Street site plan complete

The Newburyport Planning Board voted on March 4 to grant requested waivers for the site at 13 Veil Street and to determine the application for site-plan review complete.

The presenter, on the record as Neil Waisno (engineer, Williams and Spirojos), described a proposal to place a battery energy storage system at the rear of the existing church parcel. Waisno said the equipment would sit on a roughly 1,000-square-foot concrete pad, be placed outside the 25-foot no‑disturb conservation buffer, and that the project would result in less impervious area than earlier approvals. He told the board the conservation commission had begun an initial public hearing and that outstanding items would be addressed in follow-up submissions.

Board members pressed the applicant for technical details on utility routing and stormwater. A board member asked whether the electric runout to poles would be above or below grade; Waisno responded that the conduit would transition to below grade near the site and described standard conduit encasement and spacer details. Staff noted comments from the city’s engineer and flagged the need for cross sections showing how conduits and cables would be encased.

With public comment closed, a board member moved to grant the requested waivers found in section 15E of the subdivision/zoning materials; the motion carried by a show of hands. The board made a separate finding that the application package constituted a complete submission for site-plan review, subject to the conditions and plan clarifications staff and the board will draft and approve in the subsequent decision.

The board’s action does not yet approve construction; final conditions and any outstanding conservation requirements must be met before permits are issued. The board asked staff to record the plan callouts and to ensure conservation commission items are closed out in the decision.