Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Drainage topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission debates neighbour drainage pipe, requires applicant contact abutter for Symphony Drive project; hearing continued
Summary
At the Symphony Drive/Tanglewood Estates hearing, commissioners pressed the applicant to resolve a 4‑inch drain pipe crossing the new lot (likely an abutter’s drain). The commission asked the applicant to either cut the pipe at the property line and document certified notification to the neighbor or propose plugging after abutter agreement; the NOI was continued to April 23.
At the April 9 meeting the commission probed erosion controls, buffer‑zone impacts and a contentious 4‑inch PVC drain pipe on the Symphony Drive/Tanglewood Estates 2 Notice of Intent.
Bill Buckley of Bay Colony Group, representing applicant Cypress Development, said revised plans clarified that construction would avoid the 25‑foot no‑touch buffer and confine work to the 50‑foot buffer where necessary. Commissioners agreed on planting plans and erosion control placement but raised a separate, practical issue: a small PVC drain pipe exposed near the property line that appears to convey a neighbor’s drainage onto the new lot.
Beta, the commission’s peer reviewer, recommended that the applicant cut the pipe at the property line using hand tools so the applicant removes the pipe from its property while leaving the abutter’s portion intact. Commissioners discussed alternatives — simply leaving the pipe, cutting it at the line, plugging it, or removing it entirely — and repeatedly emphasized the need to notify the abutter and minimize disturbance in the 50‑ to 100‑foot buffer.
“Beta’s recommendation is we want to get it off the applicant’s property…cut it at the property boundary using hand tools,” a staff member read into the record. Commissioners expressed concern that hand‑digging into an exposed invert three feet below grade could create a muddy excavation and recommended applicant‑to‑neighbor coordination. The practical compromise recorded on the motion was that the applicant would cut the pipe back to the property line, plug it, backfill with native soils and notify the neighbor by certified mail with return receipt; that course was seconded and agreed to as the path forward pending the continued hearing.
The commission continued the Symphony Drive Notice of Intent to April 23 at 7:02 p.m. for further review and conditioned action on confirmation of neighbor notification and the agreed approach to the pipe.
