Conservation Commission July 7, 2026

July 7th meeting of the conservation commission is going to be recorded this evening. Please stand and salute the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

George Brown. Uh, number four, soil print number 488 1108 Main Road. Anybody here have Mr. Brown? It's a soil premise.

I know. I just figured I'd ask if they want to come up and say hi.

Mr. Chairman, this is so permit renewal for George Brown, 11:08 Main Road. This is permit number 488.

On description of the work, the owner has filed to renew the stockpile and transfer soil permit at the property located in 1108 Main Road. Owner store stone and other materials for his business. This site is in good working order. Recommendations. Westport Conservation Commission soil conservation board should approve a one-year renewal for George Brown so number 488. Does anybody have any

questions concerns comments?

Motion to approve.

Second.

All in favor? All right.

All right.

Uh, Phil, next we have for Kevin I'm sorry. Yeah, Kevin Candas number 452 832 R Main Road.

Anybody here from Mr. Candas?

Okay.

Chairman, members, Kevin Candas, 832 Main Road. This is a soil permit renewal for permit number 452. The date of the report is July 1st, 2026.

The owner has filed to renew the stockpile and transfer soil permit at the property located at 832 Main Road.

Property is used for the storage of stone, lom, and sand. Again, this site is in good working order. Uh, for record, it's also leased to AJ Potter and Sons for the record.

Recommendations. The West Conservation Commission Soil Conservation Board should approve the one-year renewal for Kevin Kandeas uh 832 Main Road permit number 452.

Do we have any questions or comments?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Second from Kevin. All in favor?

Opposed?

All right, that's unanimous.

South John and Margaret Sylvia number 497 33 Old County Road.

Mr. Chairman Johnson and Margaret Sylvia. Uh 33 Old County Road number 497. Report date is July 1, 2026.

Uh the owner has filed to renew the soil permit number 497 for the stockpiling transfer site permit at 33 County Road.

This site is used again to store sand, stone, and other materials. This site is also in good working order.

Recommendations. Westport Conservation Soil Conservation Board should approve a one-year renewal for number 497 soil implement for John Sylvia at 33 Old County Road.

Does have any questions, concerns?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Second from Phil. All in favor?

Opposed? All right. That's unanimous.

First hearing of the night. John Wabajang notice of intent 27 Eddie Drive. Construct addition of the buffer zone. Anybody here?

All right. Do you have your uh bot notification cards or do you already have them?

Yes. Let's see.

All right.

Hi. Thank you so much.

Uh good evening everybody. Russ Waldron here for 2780 Drive. So the project is an addition to the existing S single family home. It is a 30x 24 garage under living space above and the location is currently comprised of asphalt driveway.

Do you have a map or a locus that you put up on the on the board?

I have this one.

Go. I know it's small, but just put it up there. Some magnets on the board.

You can put it up there. Thank you.

Okay. Small addition right here on the driveway garage under I think the second story should be used as space.

You all set with the presentation?

Yep.

All right. Chris, Mr. Chairman, members, John Fang Jong 27 Eddie Drive. This is a noticement application filed by applied ecological service sciences rather Russ Waldron.

The report date is July 1st 2026. There is a file number no adverse comments.

It's SE802844.

The site visit was also on July 1st 2026.

Uh description of the work. The applicant has filed a notice of intent to construct an addition to the existing home. The wetland line has been flagged in the field and was determined to be accurate as shown. The proposed 24 by30 addition will be 49 ft from the edge of the wetland at the closest point. The work is within the existing lawn area and a portion of the existing paved driveway. Erosion control shall be

installed below the work location and remain until the area is stabilized and seated. Recommendations for the board tonight. The Westport Conservation Commission should approve the proposed 20 by 24 by30 addition at Eddie Drive with standard conditions. It's all Mr.

channel.

Roof run off with the drywalls. What are you doing for that?

Well, this would you Yes, you can add that as a condition for this addition.

Yes, roof run off into drywalls.

All right. Any questions from the audience?

Any questions from the table? If not, a motion.

Motion to approve withstanding conditions and the amendment you said with dry wells for roof runoff.

Second. Okay. All in favor?

Opposed?

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jeffrey Wade, notice of intent 2034 main road. Rebuild existing seaw wall above mean high water.

Thank you.

If you have something to put up on the board, it' be great. If not, you can just start your presentation.

I just have 8 and 1 half by 11, but I have a computer here. If you guys want to zoom in on any planner, yeah, Valley will will take care of that. You can just hang it right on the board a little higher. Thank you.

Sounds good.

That's good. Thank you.

You can start a presentation.

Oh. um 2034 main road and uh the house, the cottage and this is the wall right here in this section right here.

I submitted photos of the existing and

This is the existing right along here.

And if you uh look really close, you'll see that the uh the bottom pretty good size block uh uh granite blocks. And up above is a little bit more rubble. So, uh, what I'm proposing is we remove the rubble rock and then put in a granite um, uh, blocks again and raise it. So, that's about 18 in that we'll take off and put back in.

And then, uh, next door that David and Lauren Jonas, they just put in a new wall right here and it comes up 18 in above mine. So to keep consistency and and uh everything uh I proposed to put 18 in on top of that too. So replacing 18 in removing then replacing and then adding 18 in of it.

Chris Mr. Chairman Jeff Wade 2034 Main Road 10 application uh with his assistance the plans were done by uh Northeast Engineers and Consultants. report date is July um 1st, 2026. We're still pending a file number. Uh Jeff had some late submitts, so I think they're finally reviewing that. So, this would be pending file number for approvals.

Description of the work. The applicant was filed to rebuild their existing seaw wall located along the edge of the Westport River. The seaw wall will be reconstructed to be raised above the title event that over top into the property. Existing wall will have new stones added to raise the height approximately 2 feet. The seaw wall will have a filter fabric installed to prevent future fine future fines from

washing out from behind the wall.

Workfalls within land to flooding land containing shellfish, riverfront and buffer zones. As Jeff mentioned, this is what similarly people are doing throughout the point um to reassure themselves with the coastal resiliency and to provide a little more freeboard for those king tides that have uh randomly been over topping and actually flooding into the yard area. So I I approve for this activity. Um resource

areas again land coastal storm flow buffer zone landing containing shellfish and the riverfront recommendations. Um this is subject to a waterways license.

Jeff has but he will be modifying that license in order to accomplish this activity. Recommendations. Westport conservation should approve the seaw wall reconstruction with standard conditions and pending the issuance of a file number.

All right. Do you have the uh construction sequence and all the the all that's in there?

Yep. The profile of the actual Yes. of fabric similar to what was done on the adjacent property. Correct.

Beautiful. Any questions from the audience? Any questions from the table?

No. Looking for a motion.

Motion to approve.

Uh second.

Second from Phil. All in favor?

Opposed? All right. That's unanimous.

Thank you, Jeff.

Thank you very much.

Town of Westport, notice of intent.

Barry Beach management plan for Atlantic Avenue, Beach Avenue, and East Beach.

with nature.

Jesus god, I can't make it up. Thank you.

We have Chris, where was all those those green cards you did? Where they going?

I just brought them upstairs.

Thank you.

I met the other day.

Whenever you're ready, you can start your pres.

Yes. Um Justine Rooney, Woodsole Group, working with the town. Um, I think I've met a few of you before. We've probably talked too many times, but me probably sticking to me at this point. Um, but I just wanted to give you a little introduction into what we've been doing as we before we go into the NOI filing. So, we have been working on creating a barrier beach management plan. This was looking at the

oceanfacing barrier beaches along Ocean Avenue, Beach Avenue, and East Beach Road. Um, we know that these areas are dynamic barrier beaches that provide buffering for inland areas, essential habitat, and they support public access and recreation as well. So, that was the focus of our study. And the planning process was really looking at how are the beaches used by the public already,

how are they naturally responding during storm events, um, what management practices are being utilized by the town, and what management practices would best support the long-term integrity of the beaches. and is consistent with the wildlife protection act. Um so examining these we have created the document that we have shared with you um and we've developed management practices to balance public

use and coastal resilience. Um when we look at this this plan has existing conditions within it. It defines seasonal operations. It clarifies roles and responsibilities and it serves as a living document that can be updated over time to reflect changing conditions and evolving community needs. Um, so this plan is kind of a snapshot in time and it has a lot of information that you don't necessarily need in this moment

but it also contains things like town bylaws etc. So the NOI application itself, we are looking to um have the BA the management practices which require a permit under the wetlands protection act. So that's what we're here to talk to you about today are these items. So when we look at the various practices we have things in terms of wildlife management if a whale watches washes up on the beach again um seasonal

installation such as moy mats essential Essential emergency vehicle use. This is really important to have in here as it goes to natural heritages review. Uh rack management. The town hasn't typically done any rack management, but we wanted to create guidance in case there is a year where there's a significant amount of seaweed that washes up on the beach. Debris management if there's any large items

that need to be handled by the highway department. um overwash management, which is looking at overwash during storm events and how we're going to clean up those roadways.

Redistributing overwash materials. So, if material is taken from the roadway, how it should be placed back on the property. Roadway maintenance. This is really specific to the nubble. Um and then sand fencing. There is a small amount of sand fencing proposed at the Nubble. So, I'm going to show you the plans. Um, at Atlantic we are really talking about the roadway layout and then we have a letter in the

filing from the land trust which allows us if there's a large overwash event and there needs to be a place to place the material, it could also be placed on the land trust property to the north of the roadway. Um, so this would really be the roadway layout itself. Um and the activities really that are proposed here are less that would be on the beach area because that is managed um by a private property owner.

When we look at the Nubble and I can come back to any of this I just want to give you an overview. When we look at the Neville we're talking about the roadway, the town parcel um and then again the land trust property um could be locations where we put excess material at the nubble. We've also have proposed sand fencing along the edges of the existing town path and a moi mat. I have

the moy mat drawn diagonally here. I will note that when we talked with the commission on disabilities, they were interested in the idea of maybe in the future placing it in an L-shaped formation which would get them further down the beach. So that's just one thing to point out there.

And then when we talk about East Beach Road, we're talking about the roadway layout. There's a town parcel along the very western side and then the town parcels on both the north and south side of the east end of the road.

So I'm going to go back to the activities and see if we have any questions or you'd like me to detail any of the practices in any of these items or we could go beach by beach, whatever is helpful.

Chris, what do you like?

Um, can you just discuss the more so I think is the overwash which is pretty much comes concern for um most of the site. So, yep. So, we met with the select board a couple weeks ago um along Atlantic Avenue overwash material would be split down the middle of the roadway.

The material north of the middle of the roadway would get pushed to the north of the roadway. Material south gets pushed to the south, the edge of the roadway layout. This is to help the material to migrate naturally in the system. Um, and then again, if there's a major overwash event and there needs to be more placed, that area north of the roadway to help the northern side of the barrier. Um, I

think in the last overwash event, it just went in the edge of the roadway and was fine. Um, but we would also ask that if material washes to the north side of the roadway, it's not collected from the north and put to the south.

Can you only add to that that the beach club has been very um responsive with definitely native grass plantings?

This is a really great example. They have been great stewards of this area.

Not only have they done nourishment, but they've also planted vegetation plantings. Um we do detail this in the beach management plan the value of those natural native beach grasses with their deep root systems. Um so we want to make sure when the overwash part of what the policy what the application talks about is also making sure that overwash is then not placed irresponsibly. So we've

talked with the club and it helped to educate them on we don't want to place that material on the dune vegetation and smother it. And so in the the beach management plan itself, it does give guidance on best practices in terms of slope um location etc. And all of that is consistent with natural heritage guidelines because all of these are also mapped habitat.

Um so they've also been a part of the planning process. So in this planning process, we've had meetings with as many stakeholders as want to talk to us. Um and we've held we held a meeting at the club last year um to talk with residents who some hello to some of our friendly faces that we've met before um along Beach Avenue. Again, the practice would be to split the material.

Um we've talked with the highway department. There has been some times where material has been placed on top of the dune vegetation. And so part of the reason for working with the land trust is also making sure that if it can't be placed in the edge of the roadway layout that it's not placed in on top of the dune instead it's taken to the for dune um so that it can be used to stabilize

the dune there.

And then along east, the east beach um the policy that was developed with the select board in 2024, that's one of the documents in the filing will be held here. So material will be taken from the roadway layout when it is cleared and it will all be placed to the south southern edge of the roadway layout. Um and then it can be redistributed by property owners onto their property. Um but all the material

will be moved to the south at this location.

Yeah. Um, so I'm on the board of health and I don't know if the scope of this uh plan covered um situation with uh septic systems um you know that run along the property both for homes and also uh you know for the trailers and there have been situations you know after extreme storms where they've been breached or almost destroyed and need rebuilt and I Title five, the septic septic state

septic rigs kind of cover that, but it's kind of complicated and I just wonder whether it was discussed in the plan.

So, this plan, that's a great question.

This plan only covers public property, so public land. So, it's really only the road layout itself. Okay.

And we're also not telling, we're not creating new policies for private property owners. This is really just it was kind of an internal document to also get everyone on the same page about who's doing what, who's calling whom, for example, you call the board of health in a rack removal situation. Um that they would be involved in that part of the process because it would have to

be deemed a hazard to human health to be removed. Um so there's different elements like that kind of like a command tree of who's handling what, who's to call certain activities. Chris needs to be there when they're being done. Um, so it's more of a working document because also we all know municipalities there can be turnover. So it's great for new staff to be able to understand where we're at but also have

a document that lets everyone know what the policy is. So no, we did not cover that.

Okay. Thanks.

Any questions?

Just one question. Go ahead. Um so after the select board meeting with the motion that was made at that time dealing with obviously the uh e- speech uh situation it was adopted that that select board policy that was in place by from 2024 is a part of this document correct including the town properties on each end or is yeah we carried it through we didn't rewrite it or touch a thing we were

respectful to your request and we we just instead decided we would keep that document as its whole language itself in instead of trying to incorporate it in or describe it differently. So along east beach it just says everything that's carrying the select policy is what's going to happen down here.

Just a follow-up question on that. I think the concern was that with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that they would have issues possibly with that policy. Has that been clarified that they're okay with it being a part of this plan and going forward with it?

That would be part of the mass EP review. I would anticipate that this plan that this application will get a review from both natural heritage and mass DP. We did on that note already get a letter from DMF um division marine fisheries and they had a couple small requests. So I would anticipate that those letters would come in and then we could handle those comments as they come. and CCM also supported us with this

change and allowed us to move forward with the notice of with that allowed us to move forward. Yeah, with that change understanding that mass DP is still going to review. They are going to come back and give their comment. Um so we'll wait. We the plan is not finalized. Um and we're going to wait to get all of those comments in so that we can we can address each of them as they come.

Just one more question. Yes.

the process on that. So it's obviously it goes to D. We get comments come back to finalize that that goes back before the select board to approve that entire beach management plan and final plan.

Yes. So as an example, um the DMF letter had comments on the rack management.

They had a time of year restriction for horseshoe crabs. Uh they also had a comment on fueling on site. I don't anticipate that the highway department would ever be fueling on site, but I asked Chris maybe we put those in the special conditions um and then we would go back in the beach management plan and amend the beach management plan to include those comments for including the time of year restriction.

Okay, thank you. Any other questions?

Any questions from the audience? Can you come stand up stand up here and state your name, please?

Constants, I just wanted to know as far as uh Beach Avenue, was there given any consideration whatsoever to closing the last I think it's 700 ft of Beach Avenue from the um from the uh the town parcel out to the Neville um because that is the way to maintain and to help build back those dunes. down there. And that's not saying there can't be access that you can't put a moing ming map, but just

stop digging it out. Just stop stop clearing it and let it come back and heal and let the dunes. Was there any thought to that?

Yeah, that's a great question, Constance. So, I mean, the grants are very competitive. This was a grant-f funed project. The year before was also a grant funded project. Based on public feedback and all the stakeholder meetings that we had, we wrote another grant application focused on Atlantic Avenue and Beach Avenue looking at thresholds for reorienting the roadway.

So part of that would be having meetings and we've already been having some for example coming together with the commission on disabilities and other commissions and coming up with what the thresholds for change would be and some would be sooner or later but I think getting consensus on what everyone wants it to look like. It would be a consensus building exercise looking at could you

do a phased um closing on that roadway but what does it need to look like? Is it first you start with a seasonal, you stop regrading? Is it you put a couple big rocks? Is it so we need to kind of come together and everyone would need to agree on what that looks like and the timing. So that all went into a new grant application. This application really looks at permitting pretty much

existing activities which don't have an order of conditions currently, but it does detail things that we got as feedback from you all like we're not filling in potholes with asphalt. This is the regrading practice. This is how wide it should be going. I know that there are other things such as the fence down there that you still want to be addressed. Those aren't in those this filing, but they've all been documented

as a part of the planning process and they've all been in as recommendations so that even if we don't get this grant application, we could apply to future ones and it's been stated that there is an interest to look at changing the practice down there. So, $225,000 later and we we haven't been able to get to the point of gee, you know, if what we're talking about is environmental, what we're talking about is the

preservation of the barrier beach that maybe we should start dart digging it out and provide access in some other manner that might be more environmentally sane. So the $225,000 we never got there. So we got to have another $500,000 before we can have that discussion.

I think in part this study looked at multiple different things. Part of it was also looking at does it make sense to do some large scale nourishment practices? What would look that look like modeling those results? And part of the results that came out of the Nubble, which is important when you're talking about changing a municipal roadway, is does a nourishment project make sense

here? Does it add resiliency? and that one did not. And so understanding what your options are and eliminating some of those other nature-based solutions are an important part of the process. I know it feels incredibly slow, but to change a practice like this, it is going to take everyone being on board. And to be honest, in the various meetings that we've had, there hasn't been a total consensus.

All right. Thank you, Constance. You have any other questions?

Good evening, Kevin, president of the East Speech Improvement Association. Um, first I'd like to thank Justine, Rebecca, and Michael for putting a lot of effort into this. Um, we attended the board of selectment meeting a couple of weeks ago and brought up the concern of having the entire south side of East Beach protected, not only the private property, which was the original uh, concession in regards to the town

properties as well, which seem to be the two most vulnerable spots. We do still have a couple of vulnerable spots in the middle which we're going to work towards as a group ourselves with our notices of intent that we've applied for to try and do some sort of beach resiliency bringing in approved cobble etc. Um the concern that I have and it was just mentioned recently and between Constance

and Justine is what's the future going to entail because our community is rather different than the community over on Atlantic Avenue etc. Um planting peach grass for us is not is not really a solution.

You've got a infrastructure there on East Beach Road which is financial, commercial, recreational. It's a value to this community. You know, that entire south part of the town is what brings people here in the summertime and generates some revenue. Um, my concern is where are we going to go from here?

That was question as well.

How are we going to nourish this in some sort of resilient fashion? And we all want to acknowledge that climate change, the sea's going to rise and the sky's going to fall and all of that stuff.

However, boots on the ground. What are we going to do to save this valuable resource for the town of Westport, you know, and that's what I would like to see. We want to work towards doing our own nourishment and our own efforts for resiliency as a community. Hence, East Beach Improvement Association.

That's our goal here. And we would like to see what's the town going to do for those two areas that it's applying for this notice of intent. Is the town going to set aside a budget and say we're going to nourish these areas as well and work alongside of you as partners in our community?

Where do we go from here? So, I would ask the Conservation Commission to think about that as it makes its decision. I'm not against Well, the decision is is nothing to do with what you're asking.

Okay.

The decision is to do with, you know, you're what you're asking is what the next steps are. That's really up to the board of selectment to to they have to budget money for that. We don't have a budget for that.

This is this has to do with more of our management than it does to save everything.

You know, whether it's Beach A and the and the dunes that are deteriorating or it's Forsick Beach or any all the beaches. I mean, the the the town beach, the old boat, the boat beach, it's all getting it's all getting washed away. Mhm.

So, but that's not really what this this notice of intent is about.

And I really can't answer that question for you because I don't have the the the budget to approve. Would would if we had the money we know yet? I don't know. I mean, that that's really up to the board of selectman to issue to offer that.

So, I guess the question becomes does this notice of intent lead to the next option? You mentioned another grant coming down the road. You're going to try and do something. Does that give this body the vehicle in which to go to the board of selectment to ask for money to do what they're going to do?

What to to replenish to nourish?

I the focus of this part of the planning process really was these management practices and developing what they look like. I don't know what the town's next steps are. Um, does it give the town the ability to make those decisions in such a way where it doesn't have to respond to um bureaucratic over overlook? In other words, just just to do it.

No, no, no. No matter what they do on any of those beaches, it's going to have to go through all the state agencies as well as conservation, but mostly the state agencies. And you know, as you know, I think we probably know this, they don't they don't allow armoring of of beaches. Yeah, they won't in a fashion other than just what we're already you can replace what's there, but you

can't put big boulders, you can't put cement blocks anymore. So, I mean that's I mean that that would be the I guess you know your ideal situation. You want to armor it, but maybe the state's not going to allow that. So, again, this is not this conversation really isn't isn't doesn't pertain to what the application is. So, I'd like to just if you have a question about the application, more

than happy to discuss it, but if it's about something in the future that belongs to the board of selectment, not to us. Okay. Well, thanks.

Thank you very much.

I will note that I will note that the one item that was identified through the planning process is we did a sediment characterization of the material down there. We have talked to the highway department about potentially in the future stockpiling material so they can use it in emergency situations to sher up the roadway and to do the nourishment practice that Kevin was just talking

about. So, that is the one thing that I will add, Kevin, in terms of thinking about how the town does that on their end, really doing what we've all been talking about, bringing in material from an outside source and putting it on the beach. Um, so we did share vendors with the town that they could utilize. Um, one thing that's interesting about East Beach is that it is a cobblier beach.

Um, so it's important that the pits know maybe in advance, so they can pull out that cobble and match the grain size. So that is something we provide we've provided to the town so that they have that as a resource moving forward.

Yeah.

Also in the past I think that individual efforts when it's not done as a whole become less effective because when you have you fill in an individual area it just gets um washed away faster than if you do it as a whole. But absolutely.

So if that's part of the plan in the future they should look at doing everything as a whole.

Any other questions?

Come up in a minute. State your name please. Well, it's just a housekeeping item on the notices. Could you please put the date of the actual meetings?

There was no date on this, so I would appreciate it. Um, so that we don't have to call and find out when it is. Thank you.

No, thank you for that feedback.

Any other questions?

All right. No, any questions from the table?

Tony, hi. Uh just a quick question.

Can you say say your name? I know you are.

Anthony Vvenenzio 34 East Beach Road.

Um let's see. Oh yeah, that's the that's the picture of East Beach, right?

And um one of the the things that I had uh talked to the um the plan authors was that uh for East Beach, there's two pinch points, one at each end where the ocean is closest to the road. That's where we've typically had the road erosion issues and the road buckling etc. And I asked if that you know there could be some uh plan as part of the beach management plan to address those

particular areas. I think we have I I don't I didn't see anything specific, but the plan has recommendations for doing beach nourishment and it sounds like from what you said the the step once if this is approved is that the select board would make decisions about whether they're going to do those recommendations in the plan regarding nourishment.

No, it would be up to them to to make decisions on if they want to do any work on their part on the town part of the beach. That would be their decision.

It's not it's not I'm not saying that they're going to do that. I said that would be up to them to make that decision to fund it. Right. So that would be the next point and then the town the town would file a notice of intent to nourish their part of the beach should they want to do so.

Okay. And do you know who would initiate that?

I would probably talk to the town administrator.

Okay.

And and he can bring it to the the board of selectment to see if there's funds or if they're interested in doing it.

Okay. All right. Yeah. Just trying to go with what you were saying earlier where it's helpful if everyone does it right.

Everybody should do it together. It works better that way.

Yeah. And then they have the pinch points. Okay, that's it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Katrina Burns. Um it seems like every time there is that overwash from the storms, the town comes and plows and Beach Avenue gets wider and wider and wider.

Can that be stopped now other than in the future?

That is part of the filing. So the part of the filing that is important to note is it does define the width of the roadway. Um we have talked to the highway department about their plowing practices and to make sure that they stay within the roadway layout. Um so that is something that's been discussed with the highway department and we went through kind of the various practices

and how where to place the material, how to place it in the most resilient way.

So yes, talking about how the road is um graded and how wide it is part of the NOI filing.

Yep.

Yep.

Just to follow up. So there was never a procedure or policies in place prior to this. So that's why you saw a lot of those situations with the maintenance of the road on Atlantic A. So now that this is in place, it'll obviously the highway department will follow it. Chris here will uh work with Chris Gonzalez to make sure that it's done appropriately. As you know in the past there had been

asphalt millings used on that which obviously is not compatible material. So obviously with this um moving along in the process it'll it'll lay out and standardize a lot of those practices at least there so that that doesn't happen in the future.

Correct.

And this application it can serve as a document for the highway department as well because it really has these activities in which they will be doing all in one condensed place. So also part of the goal was making sure that we don't make them go look in an 800page document. We really want to give them a concise document that they know what activities they're responsible for and what the best management practices are.

And if I may add that Mr. Chair, we do not have a notice of intent or an order of conditions now to be doing work on the East Beach AB and Atlantic app. So this puts this in place for future to be permanent through the proper process.

They have a roadway maintenance plan.

They have a roadway maintenance, but it kind of this sums up specifically that overwatch and how we handle that uh during these events that may occur.

Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions, concerns?

I have one more question about relating to that.

Sure.

So, could step up to the mic.

So, say at the mic, please.

Const. So it is part of this recommendation this stage of it for the roadway maintenance um to begin because absolutely right it's just it just gets wider and wider and wider. So it was supposed to not be any wider than 20 feet along the roadway and then it was supposed to not be any wider than 30 feet down at the end of originally but it's much much wider than that now. So,

in in this stage of the game with with your recommendations for road maintenance, will they begin to put those materials back and narrow that that roadway back to what was it was originally um okayed uh permitted for?

Yes. Is that active for this part?

Yes. And Constance, of course, is going to catch me on my toes, but I believe I have 18 feet in there.

Yes, correct.

Yeah, I have 18 feet in there.

There's two guardrails that define that.

So the roadway hasn't been widened in that area. The easterly I mean rather the westerly section may be a section that might have been slightly nipped at, but this town has not gone beyond the barriers on that east section.

Well, yes, it has because the uh of lately quite a bit um because the um the the railway the railway the uh railing is gone now. Somebody Yeah, people ripping it out. It wasn't the town that did that concert. It got damaged and someone ripped it out. So, no. Well, it should have been replaced.

You would think to keep to keep the things happen. You know that. And we're not in every place at all the time. So, and Oh, correct. It's vandalism. And you did we did respond when you called about the person parking right on the beach, which was ridiculous. But you understand that the town deals with individuals that don't necessarily read signs or you know understand the um okay

logistics of the coastal reach. So we will make sure that this is more uh guarded and overseen um under those circumstances.

That'd be if if the guardrail is missing that'd be a recommendation you give to the town administrator to put to send down to the administrator completed. It was supposed to have been completed all the way down the road and the town didn't complete it and then they just left it and um and there is a a side where it had big boulders and they were almost covered up with sand

and now they are getting ready to topple over because it's eroded and this is on the this is on the north side not the south side this is on the north side um down by near the novel That was all large boulders and the and the sand covered them and now it's all been that eroded and the boulders are all exposed.

Okay. All that work would have to come down through the but if there had have been guard rails there like there were supposed to have been. People wouldn't have kept parking up there and but all that work has to be pushed down through the border selectment to the town to the highway survey to get done.

It was never finished.

I'm not saying it wasn't. I'm not saying it was it wasn't. I'm that what I'm trying to explain to you is the board of selecting will have to tell the highway survey to do it. It's nothing we can't tell them to do it.

Well, they should have done it to begin with.

Well, they you know there's a lot of things I can go through a list of things that the town should do and they haven't done. But nonetheless, I'm just trying to explain to you the process is the board of selectman have to give the tell the highway surveyor to do it. It's not something we can tell them to do.

Well, the highway department itself needs to stop vandalizing.

Okay. Okay. Well, I'm I'm not going to get into that.

But but I just wanted Mr. Jim, this document is to stop those concerns.

Constants, the same three speech with the town keeps getting accused of stealing material. This is all why this document has come into play is to alleviate those uh concerns. This is to give the highway department a set of guidelines to follow and specifically going through the conservation commission on a lot of things that they do in this area. So that's why we have established this management plan.

All right. All right. Any other questions or concerns?

All right. Any questions from the table?

Oh, you read. You want to read report?

I'm sorry.

I can read the report. Yes. Mr.

Chairman, members, this is the town of Westport at Atlantic Beach, Atlantic AB, Beach Avenue, and East Beach Road. This a notice intent filed by Woods Hole Group with Justine Rooney here representing. Report date is July 1st, 2026. We are pending a file number at this time and we are also awaiting the natural heritage endangered species comments. As Justine mentioned, we received the marine fisheries comments.

Detailed description of the work the town's wood support provided by coastal zone management and the woodsole group have established a barrier beach management plan for guidelines to be followed after major storm events as well as methods to manage properties within the within these barrier beach areas. The work was conducted under a grant received to develop this plan for barrier beaches that have associated

public ways affected after storms. The plan provides guidance on to how the town will manage overwash and long-term strategies to enhance coastal vegetation to protect the public ways. This plan is for the town properties only and not for managing of private parcels. All private properties will require to have orders of conditions. Um Atlantic A. The committee has worked with the Elephant

Rock Beach Club to enhance dune systems with beach grass plantings, mostly private land associated with this area.

Overwash will be placed along the road and on adjacent properties under conservation guidance. Natural heritage endangered species requirements to manage shortbird habitat is also part of this plan. Beach. The committee has worked with the West Land Conservation Trust and the Disability Commission to maintain usage of the road and also access for disabled individuals. This area does experience wash over along the

east section. Further management strategies will be to place any sand overwash onto the land trust property.

Again, uh natural heritage guidelines would also apply in this area. East Beach, the area has been the most concerning portion of the management plan. strategy would be encouraged for all private land owners to manage their beach under the wetlands protection act.

The select board cobble policy will remain in effect for the requirements of the barrier beach plan in this area. The overwash policy along this area will be brought to the edge of the rightway on the south side and deposited. It will be the private land owner's responsibility to have an order conditions and allow the spreading of the overwash backs on the seawward side of the road. This is

not the recommended process for managing a barrier beach under coastal zone management, but was decided by the select board after numerous meetings with the east beach land owners. This plan will allow under extreme storm events to allow some materials to remain on the north side, the left side uh under circumstances where it would cause more damage to remove it than to leave it. Current practice utilized by some

some land owners will not be tolerated under this plan. Land owners have been observed taking materials from the beach within mean high water and pushing up back onto their lots. Boulders are being hidden under the nourishment. This activity is a violation under the wetlands protection act and is causing faster erosion. The commission will be taking enforcement action if this is

observed in the future. I'm not going to name names um but there are a few properties on that east beach section that uh again fall within that category.

So recommendations for the board tonight. The Westport Conservation should consider accepting the beach management plan and accepting the guidance provided to encourage proper management techniques along these barrier beaches. This uh would be contingent on the issuance of a file number and the final natural heritage endangered species comments. I also would like to add that we will be

putting some special conditions um with Justine and I um to provide uh a little more clarity on to that order of conditions.

Thanks Chris. All right. Any questions from the table?

I just have one question for Chris.

Sure.

Chris, with respect to mean high water, I know it's difficult over there to determine exactly where that is. A depending on the time of year and B with obviously the layout of the shoreline now. So, how would a land owner determine exactly? I mean, do they check with you before they Very easy to determine your mean high water mark? It happens every day. You know, a good determination. We don't

allow people to get within 10 ft of mean high water.

People shouldn't even be near mean high water with their properties in any way except staying 10 ft slam. Yeah.

Um, again, some people have taken that a little differently. Some people have pushed it a little further to mean high water. now this year. So I'm encouraging this guidance document to give me some foothold because there are times when it's very frustrating what happens. People get there on a Saturday. We don't have staff and things go hot. So I hope that people will understand where we come from.

We're trying to work with everybody, not only East Beach, but Beach A and Atlantic AB. And I think the highway department is supportive of this document because of all the bad press they've been getting. So we've been wanting them to have something to follow to the letter of the law and this is where I I think this really comes into play. So mean high water can be determined by calling me or it is not

very hard to determine on an annual event. Not a king tide event. It's an annual uh mean high water event. But a lot of the times where you're supposed to be doing it outside of the piping flow season from April 1 to September 15th, it's, you know, you're having the storms at that time. So, correct. It could become difficult to determine that.

Yes.

What What exactly is the select board policy?

Select board carb policy is to take all the overwash materials on the East Beach roadway and push it all to the seawward side or the south side of the roadway despite it being covering the whole road. They want all the material to go to one side rather than splitting it and providing some to the north and some to the south.

So when they clear the road after a storm, just push it to the ocean side.

Correct. And then the land owners would be responsible to make it spread in a manner that can they can access onto their site. Correct.

Anything else guys?

If not a a motion.

Motion to approve.

Second.

All in favor?

Opposed. All right. That's unanimously Christine. Thank you.

What did you give us then or No, no, I mean I showed you some pictures that I don't have.

Yeah, I don't think we took them though.

I think you No, I think you held them.

Yeah, I might have just held them. Okay.

Thanks. They pop up. Buddy, I'll give you a call.

Is Is Justin related to Ed?

Remember Ed used to be on the commission? No.

All right. Jonathan Levy, notice of intent. 418G drift road construct dock and perform waterfront activities.

Continue on September 29th.

Need a motion to continue September 29th.

September 29th.

Second.

Motion by Kevin, second by Jake. All in favor? opposed. That's unanimous.

Other business, certificate of compliance.

Are these all 21 stage coach? Are they both 21 stage coach?

Yes, sir.

Okay. First one, Philip. Can I do Philip Ferrer uh SE80 2621 21 stage coach and Philip Ferrer SE80? Do I do them separately right?

Yeah, you got to keep them separate.

Yeah. 2621 is the first one.

For the record, Mr. Chairman, the Philip Ferrer start with the present to expired. So, Philip Ferrer 21 stage coach Lane. This is certificate of compliance requested for file number SEO 2621. Uh, this is the most recent order of conditions. The owner has filed for an order of conditions to construct a single family home grading septic and well on the site. The storm water basin

was relocated to allow this development.

uh all areas are stabilized and growing and the certificate of compliance is in order. The West Park Conservation should issue a full release of the order conditions SE802621 and grant the certificate of compliance as all work has been completed in accordance with the plan of record for Philip Ferrer 21 stage pool.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Kevin Kevin second. All in favor all right it's unanimous.

We don't have a second one in here.

Chris, do you have the second?

Oh, yeah. Ferrer, I just Philip Ferrer SC8 2421 21 stage coach Road.

Okay. I have Philip Ferrer 21 stage coach lane certificate compliance. Mr. Chairman, this is a uh second older one. This is dated July 1st, 2026. My report, the file number is SC802421 coincidentally um instead of 2621.

Um but this is an order of conditions that has expired and work was never commenced. So the order of conditions uh on the COC there's actually a box to check that the work was never commenced.

So that's what I recommend for this. The Westport Commission conservation commission should issue a certificate compliance as no work was commenced on this order and it has expired for Philip Ferrer.

Was there was a house already there?

There was never a house there on this one. The house went in on 2621.

Okay.

It was a vacant lot and the storm water basin was in the middle of the lot. They relocated the basin to make room for a house.

Okay.

And they never built the house there.

Not under these. No.

Okay.

All right. Need a motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

Jake.

Second.

Second. Phil. All in favor?

All right.

Next we have uh let's see Timothy Bordon SE81 1895 lot one stage coach.

Correct Mr. Chairman. All these were found during the review of this property. It's currently for sale. So that's what brought up all these um um unsatisfied orders or conditions. Timothy Bordon was the original owner of the property with his brother Tom. They developed Autumn Drive and Stage Coach Road. At that time he filed a order of conditions for this which was called lot one stage coach

road. This certificate compliant uh rather order conditions file number SB801895 also was for a single family house and work on this lot but work was never commenced and the order also expired.

So, the Westport Conservation should issue a certificate of compliance for SE801895 for Timmy Bordon as no work was commenced on this order and it has expired.

Motion from Jake.

Second.

Second, Phil. All in favor?

Isn't Wasn't 2621 supposed to be 19 stage or is it 21?

It's 21, I believe.

I believe so.

I think that's all the same address.

All right.

That's the one with the lot behind it that we the It's the land in the rear. Right. Right.

I think I think that may be 19.

I don't have Do we have a Jonathan?

What? As far as two road addresses?

Yeah.

One is 19. I I don't know why I I got it as 21, but I believe that's what I got off all the paperwork anyway for that one. So, can you can you look it up on your l map?

Yeah, I look on yesterday. All right.

Well, we'll keep moving. We have uh so Jonathan Levy has there's no point for that either.

We I don't know what that got there. We already gave him the certificate of compliance that Jonathan Le.

Okay. That's a mistake. That's beautiful. Just take a look and see what 19 is versus 21. Why do the bills and minutes?

All right.

All right. So, we have uh minutes from June 23rd.

Jason was in charge. Probably wasn't a very good meeting. Let's see who was here. Jason, Phil, Jake, Kevin. Oh, so you guys can still vote on it cuz Phil, Jake, uh Kevin, and Burton were here and I can and we can have uh uh Jason sign, I guess, next time. Can I I don't even know if his name's on No, you can sign it. It's time.

All right. So, do we have a motion to approve?

To accept Yeah, approve. Accept 623 minutes.

So, sorry. Do I do that first?

Second from who? Phil.

Phil. All in favor?

I abstain cuz I wasn't here.

All right, Jake.

So, I'm just looking at the Westport GIS map. 19 stage coach Lane is where Philip Pereira is. 21st stage coach Lane is Timothy and Holly Riley. So, really? So, it should be 19. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.

I don't know how that goes. For the record, it would be Philip Ferrera 19 stage coach rather than 21.

All right. That's 21 24 21 uh 26 21 and 21. All of them should be 19 stage.

I just want I'm going to show this to you guys if everybody in the audience watching. I did my state ethics commission training.

Did you fail?

Spent an hour of my life. Phil, I I actually I did get one question wrong, Phil. So, I could be in trouble.

But I just want to let me know. So, Leon was nice enough to print it out. I'm going to hang it up on the wall so you guys can all Google and marvel at it.

All right, back to business. Uh, let's see. East Bay Media 19350 for advertising and hearings. Need a motion to pay.

Motion to pay.

Jake, we have a second.

Second.

Second for Phil. All in favor? Opposed?

All right, that's unanimous.

All right, that's all I have for you.

My mother could send that down with it, please.

Under unanticipated, Mr. Chairman, I believe that number Phil may have a little bit of discussion for some questions.

Well, he may have had answers or not that goes in there.

I was out with about 20 people that night. Phil, I don't know what you're talking about.

Well, this is optional, you know, which is that I don't know if uh anyone other than me read the um the D SO on Zero Pine Road.

I was very disappointed.

I did read it. And the interesting fact of that is we had a select board meeting and our council was unaware that that occurred.

Right.

Oh, I thought it was very I was very disappointed.

Unawware that what?

That D had a ruling on that case.

Oh. And they didn't send a copy.

No, if you if you look at the letter that we received, it was to attorney Bradsky and then CC, the Westport Conservation Commission. Nobody else from D at least.

Okay. Well, maybe that explains why we didn't hear anything. Anyway, so I told them about that today.

Ah, okay. Well, um I mean in in I guess in conversation so to speak with Paul, I don't think there was any real motivation, you know, for us to appeal that and go to an adjudicator hearing over this. But what what um you know what struck me uh in reading the cover letter to the SOC um was that it was based on uh an approach to or an interpretation of the uh riverfront

regulations which was totally different from the approach that we took and u on the alternatives analysis and and it was also different than what the you know that Mr. Buckmedy took in the opposition, which was that looked at um that the their documents identified the project purpose to be a single family home with the pertinances and and and then as everyone knows, we had this argument about whether or not

the alternative that they needed to look at was the planning board lot that had been previously approved because it was all set up for a single family home And so you had one project which had significant wetlands impact and you had another project which had no wetlands impact. And so what was what was the rationale? And so I reached out to DP um and had a conversation uh you know with uh Greg Suza is that

Greg Diza Greg Greg Siza about this and what how D uh looks at this issue which I think is going to be precedent setting for us is that the work that was that they viewed this as solely as a driveway, as an access issue, that anything that happened in the in the upland um was irrelevant to them. So that um the only issue was whether or not the um driveway that there was a drive that

there was an alternative to the driveway where it was located and that they simp and they concluded that no there was no alternative to to the driveway and and so I you know in this conversation I pushed back on that to say, well, um, even accepting your proposal of of which he what he called philosophical was this issue of Bill, you know, that if someone wanted to build a build a house where they had a

better view or access to the river, you know, that that's their right. you know, if they wanted to put it there, even though it would even though the driveway would cause more impact. Um, and so I said, I I didn't think it was philosophy. I think it was how you interpret the regulation.

But then I said, "So what that really means I think for us going forward is that we have to really ignore the activity that is being proposed in the in in the upland area. So if you have a parcel of land and you want to do something in the in the upland area, it really doesn't matter that there's another upland area that might um that access to might have less impacts on

looking at the what the motivations is.

what what we really so to speak under their analysis I got him to concede should look at is okay the site where you want to do the work is your choice now we have to compare um whether like in this case which wasn't done okay you've proposed this particular route to get to the site was there another route that you could have taken which would have had less uh wetlands impacts than the one that he

chose. And while we generally identified in our in our order of conditions that what was missing was um a a valid alternatives analysis.

What we need to do going forward is saying the alternative analysis can't be as to where the house is going to be located in the upland. It's how you get there.

Assuming the house is there's no wetland issues in the house.

Yeah, that's a separate thing. So then if there was a wetland issues on the house that that had that impacted for that was involved that tri that triggered the riverfront area regulations or any other ones and you'd have to do whatever it was.

But um I still don't agree with that, but that's I I personally don't agree with the way the regs are written that there's specifically language that says the commission has the right to choose an a use that has less impacts to the wetland resource area.

I know. And and and and they get to like you understand it achieves the same goal. You get a single family, right? And I and I and I sent him, you know, and I sent him this I don't I don't think I have it here, but I sent him, you know, this revised provision of the wetlands reg of the NOI, and it said um the the the uh purpose of this project

is to construct a home, you know, in this location. And he and it's repeated several times. that when he does the analysis, you know, when he, you know, there's these different when he hears the alternative and he says when it gets to that, well, my alternative is to construct a single family house. So um uh but and that's why I I don't I so I all I can say is that our lawyers didn't point this uh

interpretation out to us you know neither I mean so we went yeah no but this is this is this is what this is what they did and this is you know based on the conversation that I had with this is what we need to anticipate going forward. So ultimately if he since the house was not in the wetlands he if he wanted to avoid all this he could have come in and applied for just the

driveway portion and say I want to get to this parcel not say what he was going to do with the parcel and say I'm only here for the driveway and then he would have no alternatives and then it would have been right right I mean it probably would have come up at that point where um you know Chris or somebody would ask well okay I know you want to get from here to

there but is there another way to get to the there is less less uh impact actful than uh than what you proposed.

You know, maybe in this case there was Mr. There was a causeway that went across.

Yeah, exactly. It just was not convenient to get to. But if I knew we were going to end up in this situation, then I would have geared to go across that causeway, which they originally were going to do. And I said to him, why do you want I mean, why are you trying to go that way when so there was another way which was the ancient way, but the way came off of the

opposing property and they never annexed that piece as part of this. So they had to get through wetlands to get to that access rather than so I I again I find the state to be changing and I think D is changing with the ways of the governor's attitude towards development and I I find their interpretation despite our attorney's letter that we wrote that was very specific that they don't even they

only grasp that it was a driveway.

Yeah. Yeah.

We even argued that limited project filing and all that.

Yeah. They didn't really they didn't really, you know, so just, you know, it says um, you know, so they go through this and it says that the department acknowledges that the subject of this review is limited to the construction of a driveway that is presumed to access a single family home outside the riverfront area. that is that has not been yet been proposed and it was proposed.

So they proposed so they didn't approve the house in this. So he's going to have to No. So all they approve as a driveway.

That's it. That's how I read this. I mean I have I mean I I haven't picked through the order of conditions cuz we all know that Mr. Buckman is coming in. First of all, he's already asked to put a dock in. He's already asked an engineer to look for a dock. So now we have that alteration plus he can't see the water as we all know. So here we go to the trimming and and so

now we're going to honor him to clear in the riverfront.

Well, it's all going to be So if he comes back and Yeah. I mean, so it's going to be um well, uh I think central, you know, to this and and I don't know if you know, Greg is speaking for the greater department as a whole, but it kind of reflected I felt his that what we heard, you know, from attorney Brodzky, you know, which was um you know that uh uh you know it's location location

economics. Yeah. Yeah, the he has if if someone, you know, wants to have a view in a dock and whatever that, you know, we're not in a position to say uh and it's an upland, you know, then we're not in a position to say, well, you could build your house, you know, closer to the road and you won't get a view because it has less impact on resource areas. I think that is the philosophical

attitude. This still is an $800,000 driveway. So, he still is he still is bound to a significant expense for what he spec out.

Maybe there's more lots and less boat to be developed based on this.

So, I I don't know. I'm going to start looking.

Basically, the state is saying there's no alternative way to get to this this place on the land. And we're saying but he doesn't have to get to this place on the land. There's another place on the land he could go to.

Yeah, that's what we were saying. But they didn't buy that.

They didn't buy that. So now we have we would you know and we would have to go back and we would say all right we need an engineer to come in and demonstrate to us that there that there is not a feasible way or if there is a feasible way that it's more expensive than the way you've proposed you know and we would apply the alternatives in that way. They could say, well, you know, it

costs X, you know, per square foot or whatever to build this and, you know, this is X time five. And so, yes, you know, we impact less, but it's not economically feasible to do whatever that would mean in this context. So I even gave him I said what it was a commercial property and someone had to build a warehouse here you know a 10,000t warehouse and it had all these

impacts. Um and uh uh and there was another one where he could build a 9,000 foot and had zero impacts. You know wouldn't couldn't we tell him to build a 9,000t warehouse with zero impacts? You know well I appreciate you following up with that Phil. Yeah, I don't I I agree with you, Phil, but that's really I feel it's frustrating on my end to try to guide people. So, thank you again for that. I will make

sure that and we look at these a little more specifically.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think part of it was it was that you know the planning board um parcel was just I mean it was like right in front of you in front of us. It's like this is so obvious, right?

No impacts. the things already approved versus where you're proposing, you know, you know, and uh so it was just uh no buildable lots.

Yeah. But I wish we had had legal advice that they said if that was a D's practice and that their opinion, I wish we had had legal advice when we were talking to them and said, "No, you're you're looking at this wrong."

I last 15 years I've been doing this, I've never heard them ever say that anything of the sort.

I know. Well, so but now we know I feel retired.

Well, I mean I and you know I was I I'm frustrated because our town council didn't get a copy of this and maybe if they had they would have said you know this does not hold water you know you should peel it but then that would have cost a lot of money I think. Yes.

To do it. And u I'm not sure it's not worth it. I mean, if that's what the DP wants to allow, that's what they allow.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I mean, God bless Mr. Buckley.

Got a nice little piece there.

Okay.

All right. Motion to motion to have a second. Second.

Second from Phil. All in favor? Oppos?

So,