The Dartmouth Conservation Commission held a remote/hybrid meeting on April 28, 2026. The commission began by unanimously approving the minutes from their March 24, February 24, and March 10, 2026 meetings. They then reviewed a field trip report for a wetland site inspection at 300 High Hill Road (also known as two Slades Farm Lane). Staff member Edward reported that the proposed work was outside the 100-foot buffer zone, and the commission voted unanimously to accept the wetland delineation as presented. The commission's only public hearing concerned a notice of intent from Levi and Kelly Shockley for the construction of a single-family home at 112 Pine Island Road. Jamie Bissonette of Zenith Consulting Engineers presented the plan, which involved work within the 100-foot buffer zone but mostly on existing lawn area outside the 50-foot buffer. Following the presentation and staff recommendation, the commission unanimously voted to close the hearing and issue a standard order of conditions based on the plan dated April 23, 2026. Under items for discussion, the commission addressed a long-standing wetland violation at 1363 and 1395 North Hicksville Road. Staff reported that there had been no contact from the property owner for over six months and no progress on the enforcement order issued nearly a year ago. The commission unanimously voted to refer the matter to Dartmouth Town Council for litigation. The meeting concluded with a brief discussion about appointing a representative to the Water Quality Committee and a reminder about a pending signature for 600 Potomska Road before adjourning.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Watch the video to verify.
Public / Other
I like to call to order the Tuesday, April 28th meeting of the Dartmouth Conservation Commission.
0:08Per regulation signed by the governor on March 28th, 2025, this meeting will be held in a remote/hybrid fashion.
0:15Um, the the members of the public have the option to participate using the raise your hand feature or just turning on your camera and waving your hand uh for us to see.
0:25Um Moving right into our administrative items.
0:34Um Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of March 24th, 2026.
0:43So moved. Second.
0:46Motion is seconded.
0:48Um roll call vote.
0:50Richard. Yes.
0:52Megan.
0:56Sorry, Megan, I didn't hear you.
0:58Maybe you said it and I just didn't hear it.
1:03Uh Megan, I don't think your speaker's working.
1:09Donald. Yes.
1:12James. Yes.
1:14Liz.
1:15Yes.
1:18And I vote yes.
1:21With enough votes for a quorum, so that motion is approved unanimously.
1:26Our second administrative item is to approve the minutes from February 24th and March 10th of 2026. So moved. Can I get a motion for that? Second.
1:37Motion seconded, roll call vote.
1:39Richard. Yes.
1:41James. Yes.
1:43Liz. Yes.
1:45Donald. Yes.
1:47And Megan, can you hear us? Yes.
1:50Got you, thank you. And I vote yes.
1:53That is approved unanimously.
1:59Moving into our field trip reports, we only have one.
2:02Which is the wetland site inspection / determination of applicability / approval.
2:07A minor project as per the newly approved regulations for 300 High Hill Road or two Slades Farm Lane.
2:14Edward, your comments, please.
2:17Um staff doesn't really have any comments on these.
2:22There weren't any wetlands on site.
2:25For one of them, there wasn't wetland off site.
2:27But based off of some field measurements we took, the site is outside of that 100 ft buffer zone from that BVW.
2:37So we have we essentially uh issued um Basically said no issues for the those proposed perk tests for those uh two A1s.
2:53So it's a negative three.
2:55Termination?
2:58Um I'm not sure how um let me see.
3:12I'm not sure if the A1s themselves have I think it's just essentially they don't have a negative two or negative one or negative three determinations.
3:22It's just um essentially two determinations just if the resource areas described are confirmed as accurate or B, the resource areas listed below are not confirmed by this determination.
3:41And in this case, it's the former.
3:43Right.
3:46So that's set up a little differently than an RDA.
3:51Since it doesn't have those the positive or the negative determinations.
3:58And so forgive me since this is the first time I recall this type of scenario though I may just be forgetting another instance of it or we essentially then just voting to accept the wetland delineation as outlined in the request.
4:15Correct. Yep. Is that's the that I believe that's the uh idea going forward.
4:21Okay.
4:22Unless the commission has any um any um I suppose grievances with the with the line in question.
4:32Okay.
4:34Well, based on your findings I I certainly don't. So, um I entertain a motion to accept the wetland delineation as part of this request.
4:48So moved. Second.
4:51Motion's been seconded. Roll call vote.
4:53Richard? Yes. Megan? Yes.
4:56James? Yes.
4:58Liz?
4:59Yes.
5:00Donald? Yes.
5:03And I vote yes. So, that passes unanimously.
5:07We're now moving on to our public hearings.
5:10Our first and only public hearing is public hearing DEP file number 15-2824 or NOI-26-13 on the notice of intent from Levi and Kelly Shockley care of J. Bissonette for the construction of a single-family house with associated utilities, grading, paving, and tree removal within a 100-ft buffer to a bordering vegetated wetland.
5:32Associated regulations are 310 CMR 10.02, 10.55, and section 360-2 of the bylaw on land described as map 79 lot 30 or 112 Pine Island Road. Motion to waive the reading. So moved.
5:48Second. Second.
5:50Motion's been seconded. Roll call vote, Richard. Yes.
5:54Meghan. Yes.
5:56James. Yes.
5:58Liz.
5:59Yes.
6:01And Donald. Yes.
6:04Motion passes unanimously. And sorry, and I vote yes. Motion passes unanimously.
6:09Um is there anybody here uh from the audience or the applicant to speak to this?
6:17Uh good evening. Jamie Bissonette from Zenith Consulting Engineers.
6:22Good evening, Jamie.
6:23Uh would you be okay if I share my screen?
6:26Yes, please. CCTV, can you please give him access if he doesn't already?
6:33All right.
6:36All right. Can everyone see my screen?
6:38Yes. Yes.
6:40Fantastic. Um so we're proposing the uh construct the raising and construction of a residential dwelling. The proposed dwelling uh is a four-bedroom dwelling with associated grading, driveway, and septic system.
6:56Um and the existing well is going to remain.
6:59Um as you can see shaded in these portions here, the existing dwelling will be raised. Uh we're looking to put the septic We got nice perks up in the front near Pine Island.
7:11Um we'll put the septic system over in that vicinity with the septic tank right in front of the house. The house itself will have a garage in the front here, which the driveway connects to up to Pine Island. And the uh topography um you know, travels downhill over here with the wetland in this corner um in the front corner here. And then also there's a wetland in the back, which is um shown on sheet two.
7:38Um and then approximately 200 ft offsite of this uh blue line that says 200 ft is a stream that falls offsite. This is the limit of the 200 ft outer riparian area uh that has been added to the plan. No proposed work is in the 200 ft riverfront area.
7:56Um and most of the work is beyond the 50 ft uh to this wetland area that's in the front here as you can see with the gold {slash} yellow line in this vicinity. Um we are proposing roof infiltration and reusing as much as we can on site uh such as the well and some other uh some other items, some trees and stuff like that. I'd be happy to try to address any questions that you have.
8:24Thank you for the presentation.
8:26Um Eduardo, any comments from you, please?
8:31Um as uh Mr. Viswanathan was saying, uh so most of the work is outs- outside of that 50 ft buffer zone right there. Uh some of it some of them some of the work is outside of the 100 ft buffer zone.
8:45Um based offsite our observations, it appears most of if not all of the work is going to be on existing existing lawn area that's already there. Um so we're recommending a standard order of conditions uh per the plan dated April 23rd, uh 2026.
9:09Thank you.
9:11Does the commission have any questions?
9:17And is there anyone in the audience or members of the public that have any questions?
9:24I don't see anybody.
9:29Okay. Um given there's no questions, um I will entertain a motion to close the public hearing.
9:36So moved. Second.
9:39Motion's been seconded. Roll call vote, Richard. Yes.
9:43Megan. Yes.
9:46James. Yes.
9:48Liz.
9:49Yes.
9:51Donald. Yes.
9:54And I vote yes. That passes unanimously and that closes the public hearing.
10:00Um Given Eduardo's comments, I motion for a standard order condition but order of conditions as of the plan of of April 23rd 2026.
10:13So moved. Second.
10:16Motion's been seconded. Roll call vote, Richard. Yes.
10:20Megan. Yes.
10:22James. Yes.
10:24Liz.
10:25Yes.
10:27Donald. Yes.
10:30And I vote yes. That passes unanimously.
10:33Thank you, Mr. Vissenot. Thank you. Have a good night. Have a good night.
10:39All right. It's That moves us right into items for discussion. I assume there's no bills, Eduardo.
10:45Uh no.
10:47And then discussions we just had 6 or 1363 and 1395 North Hicksville Road.
10:56Uh yes. So I believe um originally I believe Steven Schmiel uh you might recognize the name. Uh he does a lot of work in Dartmouth.
11:05Originally wanted to come in and talk about 1363 and 1390 1395 North Hicksville Road.
11:14Uh but he's had some uh conflicts that I'm assuming he couldn't make it since he's not on. So I can kind of just uh talk about it instead. Uh so the the both these sites are owned by the same person. Uh this is an historical um wetland violations. You as you may or may not know uh both these sites used to have essentially a car um essentially a car dumping site and then
11:50it was cleaned up and I believe now that there there's a house and some other buildings on there as well. Um so there's been some historic uh wetland um issues and violations um of that sort. Um and so this we had an enforcement order um back in well, we sent a letter back in May 10th, 2025 to the landowner and to try and address the problems on the site.
12:21Um we haven't gotten any sort of response. Uh it seems as though he's working with uh Steven Schmehl and I believe Zenith Zenith uh Consulting uh but as far as I'm aware uh he's entered into a contract with them, but they have been haven't been paid uh for any of the services that they are providing or will provide. Um and this has been going on for about a year or so.
12:57Uh so there's been no update on our end is been no update on uh Zenith's end or Steven Schmehl's end.
13:07Uh so we're recommending that this be put into uh town council's hand and go forward uh with the litigation.
13:18Due to the lack due due to the lack of updates.
13:21When was the last update we had from the property owner or last contact we had with him?
13:27Last contact I was at some point last year. I don't have a specific date.
13:33It was last year. Yes, we were just we just had a meeting with Steven Schmiel early last week to kind of talk about if there were any updates on his end.
13:45There hasn't been.
13:48But we've he's forwarded the email and our concerns to the property owner and we haven't heard anything from him, so that's as far as as far as we know.
14:05Any questions from the commission?
14:08None. I mean, can we put it to a vote now to go to town council or is that something that needs No, we can.
14:17We can and I I I mean we'll all vote, but I I mean I'd be in favor of sending this to town council given it's been over 6 months with with with with no contact at all and we sent a letter of nearly a year ago.
14:32And there seems to have been no progress made.
14:35I concur with that, Matt.
14:38Um Okay, so I'll entertain a motion to send the matter of the enforcement order for 1363 and 1395 North Hicksville Road to Dartmouth Town Council.
14:52So moved. Second.
14:54I'll call vote. Richard. Yes.
14:57Megan. Yes.
14:59James. Yes.
15:02Liz. Yes.
15:04Donald. Yes.
15:07And I vote yes. It passes unanimously.
15:13All right. Um I have two other items that weren't put on the discussion list just because they came in a little bit after I sent those all to you.
15:28Um, so first is the select board is wants to know um who wants to be the representative from ComCom for the wall water quality committee.
15:44Um you don't have to decide now, but you know, you can always just email me and I can kind of forward what you all decide on who wants to whoever wants to be the representative and I can send that information over to the select board.
16:01Do you know Eduardo how frequently that new group will be meeting?
16:08I believe it's once a month, but I can double check that and update you all with that information to better make a decision.
16:19Okay.
16:19Yeah, that'll definitely be helpful just to kind of understand like timing and Yeah.
16:26I'll have to also try I I don't remember which day they all they meet on, so I'll have to I'll have to double check on that as well and update you all.
16:34Yeah, that'd be helpful to know. I know some of these often meet often meet the same time as far as like CPC.
16:40Um Yeah. So it should just be conscious of that. Yeah.
16:46Okay.
16:46Yeah, we can we can maybe discuss that in a couple weeks. As long as we have that color.
16:52And there was one other item, so we're just missing one wet signature for 600 Potomska Road.
17:00I believe either Mike or Rich Richard just need to sign. Just So either Eduardo, I'm away. I should be back with a little bit of luck this coming Friday or first thing Monday. Can you hold it open till then and I can come down and sign? Yep. Yep.
17:19We have it on the table, so whenever you're whenever you're available. Thank you.
17:23It'll be there. You got it.
17:29All right.
17:30Anything else you want to Uh no, just those last two uh items.
17:38Okay.
17:39Anything else from the rest of the commission?
17:42None from me.
17:43Nope.
17:45All right. Well, that was remarkably fast. I feel like I must have missed something but if that's it, um I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Second.
17:58Roll call vote. Richard? Yes.
18:00Megan? Yes.
18:02James? Yes.
18:04Liz?
18:06Yes.
18:07Donald? Yes.
18:09And I vote yes. Meeting is adjourned.
18:12Take care, everyone.
18:1321 minutes.
18:15Good night, everyone.