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Neighbors press zoning board on runoff, septic and an historic cemetery at Nottingham Road hearing; board asks town engineers for memo
Summary
Residents and experts voiced detailed stormwater, septic and blasting concerns about a proposed house and large retaining wall on a narrow Nottingham Road lot, and the board asked for an engineering memo from the town and referred site-plan scrutiny to the planning board.
A contentious public hearing over a proposed single-family home on a preexisting nonconforming lot on Nottingham Road drew detailed objections about stormwater, septic location, retaining walls and possible impacts to a nearby historic burial ground.
Architect Peter Scott presented a redesign that reduced wall extent and added staged plantings, stone cladding and adjustments to the house siting. Dozens of pages of neighbor letters were noted as part of the record. Neighbors described repeated basement flooding, installed French drains, and the risk that runoff or wall construction could overload a nearby unpiped storm drain that discharges toward Route 117 wetlands.
Speakers included longtime residents (Bill McIntosh, Severino D'Amico, Anna Ribeiro), an environmental engineer (Jim Venner) and other neighbors who documented stormwater flow paths, showed topographical maps and questioned the retaining-wall height (reported in testimony as up to ~18 feet in places) and the proximity of septic fields to an open stream and an historic family burial ground (referred to in testimony as the Buckleby family burial ground). Neighbors feared that rock excavation or blasting could affect the cemetery and groundwater.
The applicant and his design team said they had performed test borings, worked with Hahn Engineering and designed catch basins, swales and piping; they asserted the piping has capacity and that they are designing for modern higher-volume storm events (applicant said the design targets a 100-year event). The applicant also said the cemetery area would remain outside the limit of disturbance and that infiltration and catch‑basin solutions had been incorporated.
Board members asked for an engineering memo from the town (Kevin Wynne / town engineer and Hahn Engineering materials) to validate drainage capacity and structural design for the retaining wall and asked the planning board to review site-planning elements (septic placement, steep-slope permits and visual impacts). The ZBA left the public hearing open and will revisit the item after receiving town-engineer review and planning-board input.
The exchange highlighted competing technical claims: neighbors documented observed flooding and proximity of septic fields; the applicant relied on drainage modeling and a 100-year design standard validated by consulting engineers. The board sought additional independent confirmation before acting on the variances.
