2019.12.12 Staff Report
Conservation Commission Staff Report 1 December 12, 2019
To: Conservation Commission From: Sarah LaValley
RE: Staff Report, December 12 Commission Meeting
5:30 PM – Continuation: Notice of Intent under the Northampton Wetlands Ordinance for
construction of a new 3-story apartment building and related site and utility work within wetland
resource areas and buffer zones. Dewey Court Properties LLC, 34 Dewey Court, Map ID 31D-217
The applicant has requested a continuation. Continue the hearing, with no discussion to be held
tonight, until January 23, 2020 at 5:30 PM
5:30 PM – Request for Determination of Applicability to determine if removal of existing irrigation
pumphouse, and removal and filling of catchbasins and manholes are subject to the Wetlands
Protection Act or Northampton Wetlands Ordinance. Northampton Office of Planning and
Sustainability. 254 Old Wilson Rd, Map ID 44-014 (Pine Grove Golf Course)
The Conservation Commission will be acquiring 105 acres of the former Pine Grove Golf Course, with
an anticipated closing in early 2020.
Application Overview:
The area has been maintained as an active golf course through the past season, including irrigation,
mowing, grading, vegetation and tree removal, green aeration, pesticide application and others.
Resource areas on the site include Nashawannuck Brook, shown as an intermittent stream on USGS maps, and likely related bordering vegetated wetland. The course has been filled, managed, mown,
and been augmented with turf, so locations of BVW are not easily able to be delineated. Long-term
plans for the course include comprehensive restoration, for which a Notice of Intent will later be
filed. Initial activities, for which grant funds have already been sought include removal of the
irrigation shed adjacent to the dam spillway, and removal and filling of catchbasins and manhole
structures that fed into a subsurface drainage system to allow natural overland flow to resume.
These activities should result only in improvements to resource area values.
This is a staff prepared application, so no specific recommendation is made. If the Commission
agrees that the work proposed will not alter resource areas. 6:00 PM - Continuation: Notice of Intent for residential driveway construction within buffer zone
to wetland resource areas. Timothy Seney, 1087 Westhampton Rd, Map ID 41-70
The applicant has requested a continuation. Continue the hearing, with no discussion to be held tonight, until May 14, 2020 at 5:30 PM
Request to Extend Order of Conditions – Northampton Airport, DEP File 246-551
The only resource area involved in this Order of Conditions is bordering land subject to flooding to
the Connecticut River. Changes in the small airport industry have resulted in delays to the planned
expansion project. An extension will not have a negative impact on any of the interests of the Act or Ordinance; staff recommends issuing an extension to allow the project to utilize banked
compensatory flood storage.