With respect to the Kohl Construction condo proposal for North Street approved by the Conservation Commission on September 10, Northampton Land Use and Conservation Planner Bruce Young has released the final Order of Conditions (PDF, 889KB) and Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions, Easements, and Maintenance Agreements (PDF, 37KB).
See also:
Video: Conservation Commission Meeting of 9/10/09; Kohl Condos Approved; Upper Roberts Meadow Reservoir
…a Land Court lawsuit against the proposal remains active. Kohl has pledged not to begin work until it is resolved.
Gazette: “North Street project OK’d” (9/12/09)
The conditions prohibit the use of lawn and garden chemicals and salt for de-icing unless in emergency situations; placement of about 100 boulders every 4 feet along the 35-foot no-disturb zone that protects the wetlands; annual inspections of the no-disturb zone; and a five-year invasive plants removal plan within the area being disturbed and within the 35-foot buffer zone.
Video: Conservation Commission Meeting of 8/27/09; Rebutting Gerrit Stover
Pictures from the August 27 Conservation Commission Hearing on the Kohl Condo Proposal
Planning Board Grants Special Permit to Kohl Condo Proposal; Conservation Commission, Land Court Hearings To Come (6/26/09)
Video: Conservation Commission Meeting of 1/22/09; Non-Compliance with Wetlands Protection Agreements; Kohl Asked to Revise Condo Proposal Again
0:39:00-0:51:01… Bruce Young: “Honestly I have too much going on [to closely monitor EBD’s planting plan], and part of that ‘too much’ is enforcing encroachments on projects similar to this. So, to add to this, I’d like to say that I would recommend that the commission require large boulders two feet on center across the entire encroachment zone…four feet in diameter boulders two feet apart… I think two feet keeps people from mowing and creates a border…. Because I’ve spent a huge amount of time going to these projects now that we had, we started a few years ago at 30 feet apart, then we went to 25 feet apart, now we’re at 15. Actually, I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of sending enforcement orders to people and having them deny them in the mail, and then have it come back to me, and then having to send one certified mail, and then have them deny it three times before I have to issue a…someone to deliver a subpeona, and then this is a huge waste of time for someone who is mowing down a wetland that is a…what begins in the process as a fair kind of negotiation but then turns into…it gets sold to one person who gets sold to another and people…no longer respect that line…
[Responding to a suggestion from Commissioner Kevin Lake to combat the encroachment problem through covenants:] “We have [an agreement] with Cardinal Way. We have a covenant that says, there’s a 75-foot no-disturb area, and there will be granite bollards placed every 25 feet along this 75-foot no-disturb… And what we have is, we have smashed granite bollards that are sitting in the mowed wetlands. That people have smashed the bollards, threw them back in the woods, and then mowed all the way up to edge of the woods…mowed down all the wetland vegetation and so now what we have is (and there’s a shed sitting in the middle of the wetland now) and what we have is large grass and my letters that I sent to them saying, you don’t have the right to do this, and them coming back to me saying, any letter that comes to them from the city is refused in the mail…
“My position has already been cut down to three days for conservation, and there’s no time for this, and there’s no one else out there doing it…”