DALTON, Mass. — The Planning Board will review a proposed amendment to the earth-removal bylaw at a future meeting that will include provisions for dealing with dust and debris.

 

At the end of its nearly three-hour meeting last week, during which the board voted to continue the Berkshire Concrete public hearing, the board briefly looked over the proposed changes. However, in-depth discussions were postponed to future meetings. 

 

The proposal substantially amends the earth-removal zoning bylaw, specifically the requirement section, to make the language more detailed and to add a stipulation requiring a dust mitigation plan and a reclamation plan. 

 

It maintains in Section One that any application shall be accompanied by a plan prepared by a professional civil engineer and land surveyor registered in Massachusetts. However, the amendment would also require that it be provided in both digital and hard-copy formats. 

 

It proposes that all associated drawings, such as a proposed extraction, restoration, or other associated plans, be overlaid on the master plan of the property. 

 

It also details what to include in each overlay: 

The proposed amendment then created subcategories for each overlay and provides detailed expectations for what to include. 

 

The currency bylaw says that "The plan shall contain the following." However, the proposed amendment breaks this out into its own section (A), which states "the master plan shall contain the following." 

 

This section is divided into five parts: demographics; access routes; existing watercourses and water bodies; and property lines, monuments, or fixed structures. 

 

Part two of the master plan section maintains a portion of the language in the current bylaw, which says 

 

"Existing grades in the area, and in the surrounding area, from which the above material is to be removed, together with the proposed finished grades at the conclusion of the operation, and the proposed cover vegetation and trees. Grades shall be shown at two-foot intervals." 

 

The amendment cuts "together with the proposed finished grades at the conclusion of the operation, and the proposed cover vegetation and trees," and changes two-foot intervals to ten-foot intervals. 

 

The amendment adds an overlay plan to the master plan, with a proposed on-site operations section (Section B), broken down into two parts.

 

It includes and expands upon parts F and G of the current bylaws: phased areas, if any, and proposed disposal of existing foliage and trees.

 

The amendment proposes the following language:

 

All proposed, or planned area(s) of planned operations, inclusive of all extraction, processing, and/or storage areas, included projected phased extraction areas, if any, along with any proposed roads or other fixed means of transportation extracted materials.

 

Proposed disposal methodology and location of any vegetation such as foliage, trees, stumps, and associated debris, to be removed in the process of any proposed extraction effort. 

 

The amendment adds a Section D, requiring the applicant to provide a proposed dust and noise mitigation plan. 

 

The remaining sections of the amendment are similar to the current bylaw. However, it changes oversight and approval from the Planning Board to a "Special Permit Granting Authority."

 

The proposed amendment to the zoning section of the town's bylaws, under definitions, adds Special Permit Granting Authority, a local municipal board designated by town zoning bylaws that reviews and grants special permits for specific land uses or development projects. 

 

Its role is to ensure projects meet local criteria, benefit the community, and comply with state zoning laws, all while safeguarding neighborhood interests.

 

The final change is to section eight of the current bylaws, which currently says, "Soil shall not be disturbed within 150 feet of boundaries of the premises, except at the conclusion of operations if required in order to improve the overall grading." 

 

The proposed change says, "No existing vegetation and/or soil shall not be disturbed within 150 feet of boundaries of the premises, except at the conclusion of operations if required in order to improve the overall grading, or as so defined by the permit conditions.