Third Volpe Plan Gets Wetlands Approval

By Andrew Gorosko

After reviewing a third application, the Conservation Commission has approved local businesswoman Judith Volpe’s proposal to develop 224 South Main Street, a commercially zoned property just north of Sand Hill Plaza.

Conservation Commission members October 13 unanimously approved the development plan, after having rejected two more intensive development proposals in the past for the 1.7-acre site which lies in the town’s environmentally-sensitive Aquifer Protection District. (APD).

Ms Volpe’s development proposal now will be subject to a site plan review by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z). In 1997, P&Z members approved a change of zone for the property, altering its zoning designation from residential to commercial.

Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver said Ms Volpe‘s development project, which would place a 6,000-square-foot, two-level office/retail building plus 35 parking spaces on the site, is a much less intensive development of the property than that proposed in the two previous versions of the plan rejected by the Conservation Commission. The approved plan involves no construction in the floodplain of the Pootatuck River, he said. “This is a dramatic difference over the previous applications,” he said.

When it rejected the two earlier versions of the plan, Conservation Commission members told Ms Volpe the project should be scaled down in light of its close proximity to the wellhead for United Water. The water company draws its public water supply from two wells in the Pootatuck Aquifer, just across South Main Street from the Volpe development site.

“It’s in a very, very sensitive location,” Mr Driver said. “The commission told the Volpes over a couple of years this is a very sensitive site,” he noted.

After the commission rejected her second development proposal for the site for environmental reasons last March, Ms Volpe sued the commission, seeking to have a judge overturn its rejection of that development proposal.

In January 1998, commission members had turned down an initial, more intensive version of the development proposal, citing environmental concerns, including the extent of earth moving needed to develop the property, plus its proximity to the Pootatuck River and to the wellhead for United Water.  Commission members then suggested that the plans be scaled down to reduce environmental risks.

Initial plans called for an approximately 9,500-square-foot building and 53 parking spaces.

The proposal approved by the Conservation Commission would not contain Avance Esthetiques, a day spa now operated by Ms Volpe at Sand Hill Plaza, Mr Driver said. The proposed relocation of the day spa to the site had become an environmental issue in the previous applications in light of the various toxic chemicals that would be handled at the relocated spa in the APD, near the water company’s water supply wells.

The approved version of the proposal involves less earth moving than previously proposed. Earth moved on the site would be left on the property instead of being trucked away. A scaled-down septic system would be positioned farther away from the Pootatuck River than in past proposals. Also, because there would be no day spa on the property, there is no need for holding tanks for toxic chemicals.

After Ms Volpe submitted the third version of the plan, United Water withdrew its previous objections to developing the site. In rejecting the second development proposal last March, commission members noted that United Water was concerned the proposed development would pose pollution dangers to its wellhead, which is 200 feet away from the Volpe site, as well as pose hazards to the stability of the Pootatuck River. The water company asked that the commission deny the previous application. United Water serves 1,100 water customers in the town center and along South Main Street.