Planning board approves 11‑home subdivision on North Billerica Road after drainage debate

The Lowell Planning Board on May 4 approved a definitive subdivision and site plan to split a 3.6‑acre parcel on North Billerica Road into 11 single‑family lots.

Attorney John Cox, representing FTO Realty Trust, told the board the applicant reduced an earlier duplex plan to 11 single‑family homes to address neighborhood concerns and that proposed lots are roughly 7,600 square feet. Engineer Matt Heimer described a 450‑foot roadway with porous asphalt intended to infiltrate stormwater on site and an emergency overflow drainage easement to manage extreme events.

Neighbors at the public hearing urged caution. “They’re going to be pushing more into one area instead of it naturally drains,” said Ed Chason, a Gettys Drive resident who told the board his neighborhood already experiences standing water and asked what recourse abutters would have if runoff increased. Brenda Richardson, whose driveway lies near the curve where the new road would connect, said sight lines make exiting her driveway precarious and asked the board to account for safety.

Heimer and the applicant said the project’s stormwater report demonstrates compliance with Massachusetts DEP standards. “This system provides a full uniform drainage system that distributes the water into the groundwater uniformly,” Heimer said, defending porous pavement as a best‑practice for the site and noting prior local installations the city has accepted.

Board members pressed for enforceable safeguards. The approval carries multiple conditions the board required during its vote: the applicant must work with the Division of Planning and Development to finalize a landscaping plan emphasizing native trees (aiming for two to three trees per lot); provide updated plans that show required intersection sight‑line triangles; install sloped granite curbing instead of Cape Cod berms; replace proposed wooden drainage easement posts with granite posts; and furnish a performance guarantee acceptable to the engineering division to ensure needed infrastructure will be completed before lots are released for sale. The homeowners association that will be recorded at the registry of deeds must maintain the porous pavement, drainage easements and associated records; engineering said those records must be available to the city’s stormwater team.

The board recorded the vote as 4 in favor and 1 opposed on both the definitive subdivision and the site plan, with conditions attached. The applicant must also secure any required conservation commission approvals and final engineering sign‑offs before work begins.

What’s next: the approvals allow the subdivision to proceed subject to the listed conditions, conservation commission review and issuance of any required permits; occupancy of lots will be limited until the board and engineering are satisfied with required infrastructure and bonds or guarantees.