Planning Board working on low-impact development bylaw
By Caitlyn Kelleher

The planning board is getting back to the grind in preparing two new bylaws for construction in town.

Board members are meeting with both the Nashua River Watershed Association (NRWA) and the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) during September to begin developing and revising a low-impact development bylaw and a open-space residential development bylaw, said Planning Board Clerk Alan Pease.

"We have the community development plan from two years ago and this would be carrying some of the proposals made in the plan," he said. "The other piece we will be working on is updating our open space and recreation plan, but we haven't started that yet."

A community development plan is required by the state and it details the community's view of itself in the future.

The plan includes housing issue - the location, type, and quantity of new housing units, including housing affordable to individuals and families across a broad range of income - and commercial and industrial economic development.

Pease said three years ago the planning board was getting about 20 house permit proposals a year, but so far this year there have only been about four permits issued.

"I think it is cyclical with the real estate market," he said. "But in both these things our time frame is more like 20 years."

The board is meeting with the NRWA on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m. to talk about the associations issues with open-space residential developments - also known as cluster developments.

"They are working with towns to help minimize the impact on the entire water system," Pease said.

About 90 percent of the town is in the Nashua River Watershed area, he said. The only part that isn't is the area near Lake Watatic, which is in the Merrimack River Watershed District.

The planning board is trying to address concerns from the Conservation Commission and the Board of Health in the bylaw. The three boards reviewed a draft in the spring, which raised questions about the locations of wells and septic systems.

The low-impact development bylaw the planning board is designing will help to control or mitigate storm-water run-off.

"The thought behind it is to use more natural systems to mitigate the effects other than engineered systems," he said.

The drafting of both bylaws began last year, but Pease said it will take them most of the fall and winter to finalize them.

The plan is also suppose to include open space and recreation issues by identifying and prioritizing the environmentally critical unprotected open space, land critical to sustaining surface and groundwater quality and quantity, and environmental resources;

The plan is also suppose to depict the location and description of any improvements to transportation such as road widening, revised intersections and traffic control.

The action plans for these two sections will take longer as well as the development of the economic and business end of the community development plan, Pease said.

-  - Caitlyn Kelleher can be reached at (978) 827-3386, ext. 15, or e-mail: caitlynkelleher@aol.com