Costco site sees hurdles at ConCom

The Norwood Conservation Commission (ConCom) met last week and discussed ongoing issues at 1 Technology Way, the site of a proposed new Costco location.

The ConCom also discussed reactivating the Norfolk County Conservation District and updates to the vegetation management plan at Guild Pond, which can be found further down in this story.

For 1 Technology Way, there were two major issues, the biggest of which is the potential for undocumented wetlands on the site.

The site has a history of unknown wetlands, for which the owner, Technology Venture Company Trust, is currently working to restore wetlands with stormwater wetlands on the site that were damaged two years ago. Conservation Agent Carly Rocklen said now there is a potential for more wetlands on the site previously unknown.

“It’s being created for an enforcement order that the ConCom issued for the razing of the wetland,” she said. “So while I was on the site checking the compost sock around the perimeter of the site, which looked good, I noticed that there appeared to be some wetlands that weren’t a part of the wetlands delineation that was done as part of that project. That past wetland delineation was not done in the field; they weren’t looking at soils, groundwater and vegetation in the field. They were looking at aerial photos over time and the history of the site.”

So Rocklen said she saw wetland plants there, and said there may be more wetlands that affect construction plans, as nearby wetlands restrict what can be done in terms of construction. Her solution was to do a new delineation to figure out exactly where the wetlands are.

“I thought that having a wetland delineation on the site in the field would give us the data,” she said.

“And I think it’s also important to mention that before even the April meeting we were having discussions about a submittal to the zoning board that included some conflicting information,” ConCom Chair Catherine Walsh said.

Rocklen said the land owner could submit a wetland delineation to the ConCom with a professional wetlands scientist. The ConCom could approve it if it looks “kosher.” She said the type of potential wetland it is – that is, if it even is a wetland – would dictate restrictions and performance standards that a project would need to abide by.

Hern said he would take it back to his client and figure out where they go from there.

Also at the site, Rocklen said there was a salt pile that was potentially leaking into the nearby waterway. Rocklen said she noticed it at a recent site visit and it was promptly removed. Hern said the “salt pile” was actually a misunderstanding and part of the annual maintenance of the site.

“It was almost like a salt sculpture sitting outside the salt shed; we’ve had a salt shed for years,” he said. “And every year at the end of the winter season, my client’s workers will clean up that salt shed – and they have haybales up around it all the time. They take care of keeping the salt out of any area where it doesn’t belong. They clean it out, and what happens is a supplier comes out and picks up the excess salt and trucks it away.”

Hern said when they were cleaning out the shed they found a large chunk that had gotten wet and hardened, and that cannot be taken with the returning salt back to the depot.

“It would corrupt the supply, and that was moved out, set on the ground so they could finish emptying and loading the salt that was being brought back,” he said. “The supplier had to come back with a truck that could take it.”

Hern said the storage of the salt chunk was not part of the regular practice of the site.

“It may have been a technical violation, but nobody was intentionally violating any of the rules,” he said.

Rocklen said the concern was that the salt pile was getting hit with rain and water and filtering down into a catch basin.

“That was the issue,” she said. “The other general thing is that the salt should be stored in this covered area, but you can see that the salt travels.”

Hern said there were hay bales around the pile during moving, but to access the pile to move it, they needed to move the hay bales.

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Walsh said the matter has been resolved and this was “just an update.”

In other news, Rocklen said Norwood and several municipalities are looking to reactivate the Norfolk County Conservation District and recruit volunteers to be part of that council.

“The district works with landowners to create conservation plans for their properties, and the districts are comprised of volunteers,” she said, noting that each district would have five-to-seven supervisors to figure this.

Rocklen said they are looking for volunteers to contribute about three-to-eight hours a month. If you’re interested in joining up, go to https://massacd.org or contact the group’s outreach coordinator Stefanie Paventy at spaventymacd@gmail.com

Also at the meeting was a discussion on vegetation management at the Guild Pond, which is a fishing and boating pond owned by the Town but maintained and operated by the Norwood Sportsman’s Association. Rocklen said historically the association has been managing vegetation to make it easier for children to fish at the pond, but because the pond is a wetland and a conservation site, they were supposed to be checking in with the Conservation Department before doing so. They did not, and she said now she has been working with the association to figure out the least environmentally harmful way to manage vegetation and allow access to the pond.

“Maybe limited areas of disturbance so the kids could come down a path to the edge of the pond instead of cutting down all the vegetation down low,” she said.

Rocklen said she met with Michael Regan, Sportsman’s Association Treasurer, to come up with a plan to do just that.

“Mike and I produced this draft plan after those visits and I wondered how the ConCom viewed this, if you suggested changes, etc.,” she said.

The ConCom agreed to review the plan and submit comments.