Since the Sudbury River house will be within 100′ of wetlands, the Concord Natural Resource Commission has the power to approve or decline the plan to build our new house (which means we would be forced to adjust the plans). On the negative side, we are increasing the footprint of the house to be approximately double that of the existing house. We are also taking down 4 trees within the 100′ zone (plus 3 or 4 more outside of the 100′ zone). On the plus side, we will be volunteering to relocate the septic system. The existing septic system is closer than 50′ to the wetlands, and the proposed replacement (which will not be any larger) will be completely outside of the 100′ zone. We will also be removing the old house, a corner of which currently intrudes into the 50′ feet no-build zone, but is grandfathered in place.
The other thing we will add to our proposal, on the plus side of the equation, is our plan to remove invasive species and add (plant) a lot of native trees and plants. When we meet with the Natural Resources Commission, we have to include the plans for this, at least the portions of which fall within the 100′ zone. Today, we reviewed the first pass of a plan from our landscape architect.
This is the plan. The big circles that are empty except for a single dot and the letters “EX” are existing trees. None of those will be removed or impacted. Everything else that is round is new. (Although the three LP tanks on the side of the garage are not technically native plants). You can also see the proposed granite tiled walkway that will lead from the driveway to the front door and to the deck.
(The current plan is to actually block the entrance to the deck from the walkway with a moveable planter. The reason is encourage package deliveries and guests to use the front door. During an outdoor party, we can move the planter and have our friends just go directly onto the deck.)
The river side of the house will have a small lawn, which is not marked, but already exists. This will be mostly in front of the living room, at center of the house, within the 50′ zone (it is grandfathered in place). The area between the front of the house and the road (bottom of the diagram) is still under discussion. It will be above the septic system so planting things with large roots is not possible. We are thinking of a small lawn for sitting outside or a small meadow area. But, since it is outside of the 100′ zone, we do not have to make a decision at this time.
There is currently a line of thick vegetation at the edge of the road hiding the house from the road. We will be forced to cut some of this down during the build process to provide a path for the heavy equipment, but we plan on replacing that vegetation boundary once the house is built. It provides some nice noise isolation from the road (although the road is not a busy street).
For reference, here is the current list of proposed trees and plants. If you have any opinions, you are free to add a comment.
Our next step is to review this proposal so the entire documentation packet can be put together for the Natural Resources Commission by November 20th (the deadline to make the December 11th meeting).
By the way, in case you were wondering, the Natural Resource Commission will monitor the plantings that we put in place for five years and require us to replace anything that dies. I think they do this with a yearly site visit, but I am not completely sure of the details. We will need to be diligent about watering to get it properly established.
Leave a Reply