Marc
New member
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.
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.
