Planning Board Meeting

The Planning Board conducted a full agenda including design-review approvals, multiple continuances, two major public hearings, and several administrative bond and covenant actions. The board approved a storefront sign at 80 Main Street (Barn Moth) and continued several pending hearings (9 Oakland St, Rocky Hill, 29 Lake Attitash Rd) to the June 8 meeting. For 30 Lake Attitash Road the applicant presented a ~1,000 sq ft addition in the Water Resource Protection District; the board voted to authorize a peer review of the stormwater/site work and continued the special-permit hearing to June 22 to allow time for the review. Pulte Homes presented the site-plan application for 28 Haverhill Road (two five‑story buildings, 126 condominium units with 20% affordable units, a mix of underground and surface parking, EV spaces, on-site amenity space, and a proposed 10-acre passive open-space/trail area). The board heard detailed engineering, landscape, stormwater, utility and traffic presentations — including MassDOT jurisdiction for the two driveways, a traffic impact analysis showing fewer than ~60 vehicles/hour in peak directions, and plans for infiltration-based stormwater mitigation — and voted to retain peer review for engineering, traffic, and environmental components; that hearing was continued to June 8 for the peer-review selection and further discussion.

Public comment focused heavily on traffic and safety near the Haverhill/Hillside (Route 110/150) corridor: multiple abutters from Hoyt, Merrill and Jacqueline avenues described queuing, high speeds, limited sightlines on curves, and safety concerns for school buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Neighbors urged that the developer and MassDOT prioritize access on Route 150 rather than Haverhill Road (110) where possible, considered traffic-calming and pedestrian connections (sidewalks, crosswalks or beacons), and requested thorough peer review of traffic assumptions and seasonal/peak variations. Other substantive points raised during the Pulte presentation and discussion included parking ratios and tandem garage spaces, the size and placement of on-site amenities and publicly accessible trail/park areas (and who would own/maintain them), stormwater infiltration design, retaining-wall heights (up to ~23 ft in places), on-site sewer pumping, and façade/scale impacts facing Haverhill Road. Residents asked for community meetings and additional design refinements before final approvals.

On administrative matters the board approved procedural actions to manage development closeouts: converting an erosion-control bond to a performance bond for 101-107 Market Street to allow final landscape/closeout work to be completed; establishing an $11,078 erosion-control bond and endorsing the required covenant (including landscape security prior to operation) for the National Grid work at 9 Allen Clear Drive; and staff confirmed that peer-review contracts will be obtained and brought back for formal selection/authorization. The board also confirmed the project review pathway — Technical Review Committee, Design Review Committee, Conservation Commission coordination, and MassDOT access review — and noted timelines and next steps for each major application.