Sherborn Board of Health waives 24-hour EHIR filing timeline for Meadowbrook Commons, seeks peer review

Sherborn — The Board of Health on June 3 agreed to waive its regulation that would have required filing an Environmental Health Impact Report (EHIR) within 24 hours of submission to another permitting authority for the Meadowbrook Commons project, and set next steps for independent technical review.

Tighe & Bond engineer Liz Clark and Toll Brothers’ representative Jeff Heidelberg told the Board that Meadowbrook Commons (67 units) and the adjacent Coolidge Crossing (136 units under Chapter 40B) are pursuing municipal water and sewer connections after on-site pump tests in summer 2025 showed insufficient water quantity. The developers plan intermunicipal agreements for water from Framingham and sewer to Natick, and to construct more than 4,000 linear feet of 12-inch water main and about 2,000 linear feet of sewer force main, which would later be transferred to the North Sherborn Water Sewer District.

Board members acknowledged the project’s complex permitting path — including a Draft Environmental Impact Review certificate issued in November 2025, MEPA review, the Inter-Basin Transfer Act (Water Resource Commission) considerations, and eventual MWRA approvals — and focused discussion on stormwater, bedrock disturbance from proposed blasting, and peer review of technical analyses.

“The Board’s stormwater standard was designed to prevent changes in hydrogeologic dynamics among neighboring properties,” Co-Chair Daryl Beardsley said, noting the regulation’s 10% runoff limitation was written for smaller, distributed development. Beardsley said the Board will want assurance that infiltration is distributed across the site rather than concentrated in a single basin.

Dr. Rebecca Hunnewell asked the applicants to provide a written comparison showing how the Board of Health regulation, state stormwater standards and Conservation Commission requirements together protect public health, particularly for nearby private-well users. Clark agreed to prepare that comparison and to supply supporting materials for the Board’s peer review.

The applicants requested a waiver from the Board’s 10% runoff limit and proposed that Planning Board and Conservation Commission peer review be primary oversight for stormwater while the Board of Health would receive summaries confirming compliance. The Board did not grant a waiver of the 10% limit at this meeting; instead it waived the narrower procedural requirement in Section 305-3.6(A)(2) that would have forced EHIR filing within 24 hours of a filing elsewhere. The motion to waive the 24-hour submission timeline passed 5-0.

Board members also debated whether to retain TetraTech — the Planning Board’s peer reviewer — or to engage a separate consultant. Ms. Beardsley said she wanted to verify TetraTech’s expertise in bedrock-disruption impacts; Dr. Hunnewell emphasized the need for an independent, conflict-free reviewer. The Board tabled a consultant selection and asked to revisit the choice at its July 15 meeting, with the applicants returning with comparative stormwater materials.

Next steps: the applicants will deliver the requested comparative stormwater documentation and confirm abutter notification for the pump-test; the Board will decide on peer-review procurement on July 15 and will monitor EHIR submission timing under the granted waiver.

The Board authorized Ms. Beardsley and Co-Chair Julie Dreyfus to finalize and send a comment letter to the Planning Board summarizing the Board of Health’s positions on stormwater peer review scope, foundation drainage, earth removal, and high-groundwater concerns.