Duplexes instead of quads at Trail Ridge
Developers of a condominium community on Littleton County Road are asking the board for a “minor modification” to the comprehensive (40B) permit granted to them in 2005. They want to increase the number of buildings on the parcel from 13 to 21, while keeping the total number of units the same.
Original plans for Trail Ridge at Harvard called for a total of 52 units to be housed in 13 buildings. Today, the parcel contains five buildings, each containing four units; all but one of the 20 units is occupied.
With 32 units yet to be built, Fairways Partners LLC wants permission to build 16 duplex buildings instead of the eight four-unit buildings allowed under the 2005 permit. Elaine Davis-Curll, real estate broker for Trail Ridge, said the change was needed to make the homes more marketable. “People want end units,” she told the Press last week.
Status of contaminated, out-of-service well at Trail Ridge
Also at the hearing, Fairways Partners answered a question from the board about a well that contains nearly twice the maximum allowable limit of the synthetic organic chemical Di(2ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP). The well—one of four on the property that supplies drinking water—first showed unacceptable levels of the plastic-softening chemical in 2009 and was taken out of service in 2010. In addition to its common use as a plastic polymer, the chemical is also used in machine fluids and industrial glues and solvents.
According to a letter prepared by the developer’s water systems manager, the source of contamination could be the glue used in the well pump. The report, prepared by Small Water Systems Services of Littleton, also says that Trail Ridge has ended a three-year period where it was supposed to test and report on the well, but didn’t.
The letter, addressed to Ira Grossman of the Nashoba Associated Boards of Health, says Small Water Systems has “confirmed with DEP’s Worcester office that all outstanding [noncompliance notices] from the previous operator have been resolved and that the Trail Ridge water system is now in full compliance.”
“We will pull the pump,” said William Hannigan of Hannigan Engineering, Trail Ridge’s civil engineering firm. Tests and remediation will continue according to Department of Environmental Protection requirements, he told the board, until the problem is solved.
Currently, the 20 condominiums at Trail Ridge are served by the three remaining wells, which meet drinking water standards. However, the fourth well will be needed to serve the total of 52 units planned for the site. Documentation of the well testing is on file at the Board of Health office at Town Hall.
The Trail Ridge hearing will continue on March 13 at 7:30 at the Town Hall meeting room.
