Serious thread for once- need a little help [environmental issues]

[Marc]

Hey, weird, a serious thread. I know how strange of me.

Anyway. Stop laughing. Yes, right now.

Ok, so I know some of you know I moved into my family's farmhouse recently in Dudley, MA. I'm on 5 acres surrounded by 150 acres of farmland owned by my dad's three cousins (three daughters of my dad's uncle, with whom he farmed for nearly 30 years). The property now has a permanent deed restriction against anything that will undermine it's agricultural value under the Mass Agriculture Preservation Restriction program.

The land is in a valley adjacent to Dudley Hill, on top of which is Nichols College

Nichols now wants to expand one of their current parking lots abutting the farmland to three times it's current size onto land that is now woodland. To deal with the drainage, all of which will now be surface runoff, they're planning on digging a retention pond between the parking lot and the farmland. It will be drained onto the farmland into drainages that flow down into the Keekamoochaug Brook, at the bottom of the valley.

There are several issues here-

1) There are possibly some wetlands they want to build on.
2) The extra runoff will likely cause further washout of land around the farm because water that would otherwise leech down the valley will be surface drainage now.
3) There's an old railroad land bridge across the valley with a culvert the brook goes through that is already being undermined by years of no maintenance, and it's already about 100 years old.

If anyone knows of any good environmental engineering firms and land use lawyers, we need them badly. The project has already been approved by the town, but I believe there's been a stay put on the start of the construction until September. Not for profit would be nice, but someone with experience dealing with this type of issue, non profit or otherwise is really what's needed.

My relatives also allege some conflicts of interest in that some developers sit on the zoning and planning boards of the town of Dudley, who knows if that's a real issue or not, but I'd rather not have a several acre parking lot above my house and the runoff, especially from an overflowing retention pond because of spring snow melt or the kind of rains we had two years ago in October.

If anyone has any connection that could help, I'd appreciate it.

[nelsapbm]

How long ago did the town approve this project? I'm not sure about Mass State Law which I'm sure is entirely different, but up here in VT you only have 30 days from the date of the P&Z decision to appeal.
If there were/are wetlands involved, did the State ANR (natural resources agency or whatever its called there) had to chime in? Army Corps? Did you or your family participate in any of the hearings for this project? Since you are direct abutters of the project I assume you were given notice? If not, look into that - again every state is different, but up here direct abutters have to be notified of a hearing at 15 days or 7 days in advance depending on the type of project. If zoning allows this type of use and the site plan meets the requirements, you are probably SOL. If you can prove that the plan does not meet the requirements of the zonign regs, then you may have a case.
I'd go to town hall and pull the file for this project and take a good look. AND.....
THAT said, get yourself a good land use lawyer. I could recommend some here in VT but that won't help unfortunately. I gotta tell you, these kinds of things can get costly. Sorry
PS. Hopefully trailboss will chime in. I think he's in law school right now for this kind of thing

[OldsnowboarderME]

Check out the MassDEP website .. If approvals have been obtained from the town and state already a lawsuit is the only recourse I would think ..

[ckofer]

Marc, do you feel that the college's engineers did not do a good job?

[ctenidae]

According tot eh MassDEP, there doesn't look to be any protected wetland in that immediate vicinity- http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/21e/viewer.htm - , so there's not likely to be any wetlands mitigation needed.

For advice, on the non-profit side you can get in touch with The Nature Conservancy. They can be pretty militant, but if you can get their feathers ruffled a bit, they're pretty tough.

On the for-profit side, there is a group in Vermont called Green Asset Partners who buy land like your family's and subdivide parts of it and put protections on the rest. Not what you're looking to do, I know, but they're pretty well connected to things. If you want to go that route, I can probably put you in touch with someone. Timbervest, a timber investing firm (duh) also has an environmental mitigation fund they're working on, and those guys are really well plugged in. I can also ping that route if you want.

Overall, though, you may not be able to do anything until something bad happens, like the pond overflowing or the brook washing out.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by nelsapbm

How long ago did the town approve this project? I'm not sure about Mass State Law which I'm sure is entirely different, but up here in VT you only have 30 days from the date of the P&Z decision to appeal.
If there were/are wetlands involved, did the State ANR (natural resources agency or whatever its called there) had to chime in? Army Corps? Did you or your family participate in any of the hearings for this project? Since you are direct abutters of the project I assume you were given notice? If not, look into that - again every state is different, but up here direct abutters have to be notified of a hearing at 15 days or 7 days in advance depending on the type of project. If zoning allows this type of use and the site plan meets the requirements, you are probably SOL. If you can prove that the plan does not meet the requirements of the zonign regs, then you may have a case.
I'd go to town hall and pull the file for this project and take a good look. AND.....
THAT said, get yourself a good land use lawyer. I could recommend some here in VT but that won't help unfortunately. I gotta tell you, these kinds of things can get costly. Sorry
PS. Hopefully trailboss will chime in. I think he's in law school right now for this kind of thing

Thanks for the advice... there was a hearing that my aunts went to and apparently made a bigger mess of things. Now I'm trying to do some damage control there as well. I may very well be SOL at this point, but I'll give 'er a try anyway.

Originally Posted by OldsnowboarderME

Check out the MassDEP website .. If approvals have been obtained from the town and state already a lawsuit is the only recourse I would think ..

You might be right. I don't know if my aunts are planning one or not, but I know they fired their last lawyer and got their money back.

Originally Posted by ckofer

Marc, do you feel that the college's engineers did not do a good job?

I don't know much of the details of what was done, but I can tell you there are factors here that good engineers might not see, especially if they haven't toured any of the farmland with someone who knows their way around. There's so much drainage grown in with multiflora, you have to know where to look to make a fair evaluation of the situation.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by ctenidae

According tot eh MassDEP, there doesn't look to be any protected wetland in that immediate vicinity- http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/21e/viewer.htm - , so there's not likely to be any wetlands mitigation needed.

For advice, on the non-profit side you can get in touch with The Nature Conservancy. They can be pretty militant, but if you can get their feathers ruffled a bit, they're pretty tough.

On the for-profit side, there is a group in Vermont called Green Asset Partners who buy land like your family's and subdivide parts of it and put protections on the rest. Not what you're looking to do, I know, but they're pretty well connected to things. If you want to go that route, I can probably put you in touch with someone. Timbervest, a timber investing firm (duh) also has an environmental mitigation fund they're working on, and those guys are really well plugged in. I can also ping that route if you want.

Overall, though, you may not be able to do anything until something bad happens, like the pond overflowing or the brook washing out.

I'd be especially concerned if the extra drainage undermines the culvert and make a 100' high damn out of the railroad crossing. I'd have water at my front door if that happened. I'd probably have one helluva a lawsuit for someone at that point though. Thanks for the contacts. I might try and get in touch with them. At least go more public with the project and let people know what's going on in the town.

[bigbog]

Originally Posted by Marc

..........I don't know much of the details of what was done, but I can tell you there are factors here that good engineers might not see, especially if they haven't toured any of the farmland with someone who knows their way around. There's so much drainage grown in with multiflora, you have to know where to look to make a fair evaluation of the situation.

Agreed!...and very diplomatically put... Get a hold of a few good engineers that aren't involved in development!...if you can...
Of course....Marc you have to realize that you're in a state whose laws & government doesn't "want to" prioritize the environment over development.

$.01..just my opinion....
SteveD

[OldsnowboarderME]

Originally Posted by Marc

I'd be especially concerned if the extra drainage undermines the culvert and make a 100' high damn out of the railroad crossing. I'd have water at my front door if that happened. I'd probably have one helluva a lawsuit for someone at that point though. Thanks for the contacts. I might try and get in touch with them. At least go more public with the project and let people know what's going on in the town.

I would build a dock and tie a boat up to it just in case ..

[Marc]

Originally Posted by OldsnowboarderME

I would build a dock and tie a boat up to it just in case ..

My grandfather used to talk about buying a rowboat every now and then.