The Derry Conservation Commission has scheduled a site walk for this Saturday for a potential subdivision on Gulf Road.
Bob Balquist, a surveyor with Meisner Brem, represented the owners at the Oct. 19 Conservation Commission meeting.
The property is owned by Craig and Snow Bonneau and is at 20 Gulf Road. It is Tax Map 4 and Lot 61.
Balquist said the Bonneaus are proposing to subdivide their 11-1/2-acre property into two lots. One, at 5 acres, would include the existing single-family home. The other, at 6-1/2 acres, would be the site of a new single-family home. The new house would have three bedrooms and a one-bedroom in-law apartment.
Balquist said the Bonneaus received a variance in March from the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) for relief from the frontage requirements.
Balquist said, “We are not proposing to fill any wetlands or to do any work in the buffer. We had the wetlands delineated and we had a high-intensity soil survey. We have also done test pits.”
The new house will be 600 feet back from the roadway with a 12-foot-wide paved driveway, Balquist said.
A portion of the lot has 523-B-H soil, which is poorly drained, but that is 65 feet away from the house, he said.
Vice-Chair Paul Dionne, running the meeting in the absence of Chair Margaret Ives, reminded Balquist that the town’s setback is 75 feet and Balquist said, “We could move the house back another 10 feet.”
Dionne agreed, pointing out that if they did so, the owners would not have to go to the ZBA.
Balquist said the wetlands were delineated in 2001 by Gove Environmental but have not been flagged, and the Commission members encouraged him to have them flagged before the site walk.
Member Eileen Chabot had a question about dotted lines on the map and Balquist said they were markers between the high-intensity soil units, and said he would have the markers added to the map’s legend.
Alternate member Neil Wetherbee asked if the driveway had been cleared out and Balquist said that had not yet been done. Wetherbee asked where the members should park for the site walk.
“Gulf Road is surprisingly busy,” Balquist said, and added that the Bonneaus would not mind if Commission members parked in their driveway.
The site walk will be held Saturday at 8 a.m.
In other business, alternate member Peg Kinsella reminded the Commission and television audience that it’s time to clean up the Community Gardens at Broadview Farm and that the deadline for cleaning out the garden plots is Nov. 1.
“We’ve already had a killing frost,” Dionne observed.
