Conservation Commission Continues Honda Dealership Hearing, Seeks Stormwater and Spill Plan Fixes

NORTH ATTLEBORO — January 21, 2020 — North Attleborough Conservation Commission continues hearing on a Honda dealership proposed for a Zone A drinking water area. The commission voted unanimously to carry the public hearing on a notice of intent filed by James Polce for the redevelopment of the former Dos Anjos car dealership at 849-865 Washington Street to February 11, 2020. Engineer Steve DeBall of CrossFit Engineering told the board that four new stormwater quality units would bring total suspended solid removal to approximately 80 percent, meeting new-development standards without adding impervious surface. Commissioners pressed DeBall on how staff would know to operate manually-closed flap gate valves in a spill emergency — "it's a drinking water supply protection area, so that's my concern" — and directed him to add deployment protocols and an operation and maintenance budget to the site's O&M plan before an order of conditions is issued. The board also required a physical guardrail along the rear parking edge to prevent snow being plowed toward the wetland buffer. A separate finding emerged during the hearing: a detention pond at the end of Norton Road, owned by the Conservation Commission itself and not the DPW, has a severely eroded outlet embankment that the commission acknowledged has gone unrepaired for years.