WESTFIELD – The Conservation Commission requested additional information it needs to delineate wetland for construction of houses on two lots in a subdivision.
The petitioner, Charles Pignatare of East Mountain Road, is seeking the wetland delineation to construct a house on both Nancy Circle and Rachael Terrace.
That petition was presented Tuesday night to the commission by consultant Katie Bednaz (PWS), a wetland and soil scientist at Freshwater Wetland Services of Westfield.
The discussion pertained to a small stream that originates just north of Rachael Drive, crosses under that street and swings around Nancy Circle, before flowing south under Springfield Hill Road and Route 20, to its confluence with the Westfield River.
Bednaz said that most of the wetland boundary is located in designated open space created when the Devon Manor subdivision, which includes Rachael Terrace and Nancy Circle, was originally approved by the Planning Board on August 6, 1996.
Bednaz said that wetland borders the two building lots that Pignatare wants to develop.
“The status of the stream does not meet the perennial designation,” Bednaz said during the meeting. “It’s an intermittent stream.”
However, members of the commission argued that the United State Geographical Survey (USGS) maps appear to show the waterway as a perennial stream.
“We can’t overturn that designation without a complicated process,” Commissioner Robert Natario said.
Conservation Coordinator Karen Leigh said that the USGS maps for the city of Westfield have not been verified through fieldwork.
Many of the USGS maps for Westfield are unclear and the board can grant the petition to set the wetland delineation if the applicant provides documentation supporting the assertion at the stream is intermittent.
“They have to show that the stream is dry at least four days a year,” Leigh said. “It can be any four days and does not have to be consecutive.”
Leigh said that the stream designation could be effected by circumstances, such as drawing water for agriculture and the amount of rainfall during the year.
The Conservation Commission voted to continue the public meeting to allow the petitioner time to collect the data the board will require to make the wetland delineation under the request for determination of applicability (RDA) process under the Massachusetts Wetland Protection Act (Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 131, section 40).
