Rob Levesque, of R. Levesque Associates Inc., of Westfield, uses an illustration to show a proposed 11-lot subdivision off Northwest Road during a meeting with members of the Westfield Conservation Commission yesterday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – Residents and abutters of an 11-lot subdivision proposed off Northwest Road packed a Conversation Commission hearing last night to raise a number of environmental concerns.
The hearing is part of the commission’s process of assessing the environmental impact of replicating a small wetland area to replace an existing resource area being displaced by construction of a subdivision road.
The details of the wetland replication plan were presented to the board by land-use consultant Rob Levesque of R. Levesque Associates on behalf of developer Joseph Kelly of West Springfield.
MARY L. O’CONNELL
Levesque said the existing wetland is 1,550 square feet, too small to trigger the state regulatio, but it does trigger the city’s wetland protection ordinance. The proposed plan is to create a 1,560 square-foot wetland next to the subdivision road, just a few feet north of the existing wetland area.
The subdivision property is nearly 28 acres in area and is zoned for rural residential usage.
Levesque said the existing wetland “is not the highest quality” and that it has little vegetation. The proposed wetland would be created by excavating topsoil and diverting stromwater, which feeds the current wetland, toward the new wetland depression.
That diversion of stormwater into the proposed wetland was one of the concerns identified by residents of Quarry Road and landowners whose property is contiguous with the proposed subdivision site.
The topography of the land drops sharply in the area where Kelly wants to develop the subdivision. One abutter was concerned that creating the shallow replicated wetland depression would destabilize the steep slope.
Another questioned Levesque about an offset pipe to release stormwater from the replicated wetland into the subdivision stormwater management system.
Other residents questioned the impact of salt and other road material, introduced into the stormwater management system, would have on the environment.
Conservation Commission Chairman David Doe had to intercede several times to remind residents that the commission is only reviewing the plans to create a wetland replication.
“We’re mimicking what goes on there now,” Levesque said. “It’s a fairly dry wooded wetland. We’re trying to recreate what happens now. (Storm) water comes off the (Northwest) Road; it’s a transitional area which is not real wet.”
The board asked Levesque why the wetland replication was needed and suggested that the subdivision road be relocated to avoid disturbing the existing wetland.
Levesque said that the Planning Board’s subdivision regulations require that subdivision roads align to eliminate overlapping turning movements, a public safety issue.
Ward 4 City Councilor Mary O’Connell said she researched the wetland replication process on the Internet and that most of those projects fail.
Levesque said that “we can make it work; we’re required to make it work.”
Doe suggested that many of the issues raised by residents would be better addressed during the Planning Board’s subdivision review hearings.
The Commission voted to continue the public hearing to Jan. 13 and to conduct a site inspection to better understand the proposed replication project and resident concerns raised last night.
