Westborough Planning Board approves Owl's Nest subdivision at 50 Flanders Road

The Town of Westborough Planning Board voted 5-0 on June 16 to grant Form C definitive subdivision approval for Owl's Nest, a four-lot single-family subdivision at 48–50 Flanders Road. The project, which reconfigures the existing house and adds three net new homes, includes a private 600-foot common drive, Beehive Road, and will be served by town water and sewer.

Kristen Belanger, acting planning chairman, summarized the application and the board's findings, noting the Conservation Commission issued a negative determination of applicability and the applicant's fiscal-impact estimate identifies about five new school-age children and roughly 30 vehicle trips per day. The board accepted the findings as consistent with subdivision rules and regulations and voted to approve them before proceeding to conditions and the final endorsement.

The board granted four waivers tied to site constraints: permitting a roadway grade up to 7 percent, reducing the leveling area at the Flanders Road intersection from 100 feet to 50 feet, allowing a reduced paved surface width down to 24 feet, and permitting off-street graded slopes up to 2:1 in certain locations. The waivers were approved with conditions requiring clear shading and labeling of slopes exceeding 3:1, erosion-control fabric and slope-protection details, and revisions to plans showing the approved 24-foot pavement width.

Barry Adelson of WDA Design Group, representing the applicant, said about the leveling-area waiver, “I needed to shorten that up to 50 ft. It still gives the truck the ability to slowly ramp up to that transition, but I don't need to take more material out of the hill.”

As mitigation for a grade waiver the fire department identified, the applicant agreed to install a fire-sprinkler system in each home, and the board recorded that commitment as a condition. Other conditions include a private-way maintenance agreement enforceable by the town that declares Beehive Road a private way and assigns snow, ice, maintenance, and drainage responsibilities to the homeowners association; installation of a street light at the intersection with Flanders Road prior to the first certificate of occupancy; recording of HOA documents, recorded easements for drainage and maintenance access, stormwater operation and maintenance obligations, municipal-lien certificates, and a requirement to keep a copy of the decision on site during construction.

The Planning Board reserved the right to hire outside consultants and inspectors at the applicant's expense and required that outstanding peer-review comments be resolved to the satisfaction of CEI (peer reviewer) and the Department of Public Works prior to issuance of any building permits. Hazel Nurse, chair of the Planning Board, was authorized to sign the decision on behalf of the board.

The decision and approved plans must be recorded and the board's conditions satisfied before building permits are issued.