These are two aerial photographs taken by the state that show the changes made at 159 Berkshire Ave., by its owner over 17 years. The photo on the left is from 2006 and the photo on the right is from 2023.
Photo credit: MASSGIS
SOUTHWICK — Planning Board Chair Jessica Thornton probably summed up the feelings of her fellow board members after it approved a minor modification of a stormwater permit for 159 Berkshire Ave. during the Oct 21 meeting.
“Hopefully, I’ll never see this come before me again,” she said.
The Oct. 21 unanimous decision by the board “hopefully” closed out a dispute between the town and Joseph Baldarelli, the property’s owner, that has simmered for over six years about the nearly 10 acres he owns that abuts the rail trail.
Reminder Publishing was provided an email thread about those issues and actions that spanned six years by members of the Lake Management Committee, DPW, Planning Board, and an engineer representing Baldarelli, which was used for this story.
When Baldarelli purchased property in 1997, according to Southwick GIS property records and historic statewide aerial maps, more than half of it was forested.
However, as the years marched by, Baldarelli began clearing the property, so that by 2023, between 15% and 25% of the property still had trees, which was visible in aerial photographs taken each year by the state.
Property owners can generally do what they want to their property, including clearing it of trees and shrubs, unless they are within 100 feet of a designated wetland or 200 feet of a river or stream.
But Baldarelli’s property has what is called an intermittent stream on its western side and during heavy rains, stormwater from Edgewood Country Club and properties along Sheep Pasture Road is channeled by a culvert under the rail trail, travels down the stream into a culvert under Berkshire Avenue, toward the town-owned old town beach where a stone weir was installed to slow and settle the stormwater before it reaches the Middle Pond of Congamond Lakes.
Because of the possibility the weir could be breached by stormwater, the town built a swale behind it to capture the sediment before it could make it the Middle Pond of Congamond Lakes.
Baldarelli took his own steps to control stormwater. He built a retention pond and installed a dam on the stream to catch and control it and did so without seeking a permit.
For the most part, the town left Baldarelli alone, but that changed on Dec. 18, 2018, after a heavy rain event.
With the ground frozen and practically nonpermeable, and nearly bare of vegetation, there was nothing to slow the stormwater and the sediments it picked up along the way. It breached the retention pond and dam Baldarelli had installed, headed toward the town’s stone weir, breached it, and flowed into the swale.
The swale captured nearly all the sediment, but stormwater, described as “turbid” or cloudy, flowed into the Middle Pond.
That incident got the attention of the Lake Management Committee and DPW.
Richard Grannells, who was an engineer with the DPW in 2018, sent an email to the DPW director at the time, Randy Brown, and members of the Conservation Commission, asking questions.
“How can an individual continue to strip all trees and vegetation on 2 to 3 acres (or more), relocate a waterway, add an earthen dam … and an associated upstream impoundment (retention pond) without filing a notice of intent?” Grannells wrote.
While it took a year, in December 2019, the town sent Baldarelli a cease-and-desist letter to stop all clearing activities on the property and to apply to the Planning Board for a Stormwater Management Permit and threatened to begin levying fines against him if work continued.
Baldarelli appealed the cease-and-desist order to the town’s Board of Appeals. It was denied in March 2020.
After the town’s building inspector found that Baldarelli had continued to clear the property, he was sent a letter in June 2020 saying that he had violated the order and was being fined over $18,000.
The town clerk could not confirm if the fines were ever paid.
There continued to be correspondence between the Lake Management Committee, DPW, and Planning Board about the situation, but there doesn’t appear to be any other actions taken against Baldarelli for the next 16 months.
On Oct. 5, 2021, Derek Hale, a professional engineer, submitted an application to the Planning Board requesting a stormwater management permit and public hearings were scheduled.
However, Baldarelli asked for and was granted continuances by the board until Nov. 7. 2023, which was when it approved the permit.
The permit ordered Baldarelli to regrade, stabilize, and loam and seed the disturbed land.
It also allowed a retention pond that Baldarelli had already built to remain, as well as the dam.
However, there was no indication the work required by the permit was being done, which the LMC has discussed at nearly every meeting since June about having Baldarelli provide a schedule that it was being completed.
In July, Hale, on behalf of Baldarelli, requested the Planning Board allow a minor modification of the stormwater permit.
Essentially, Baldarelli wanted to change the stone that would be used to replace the earthen dam that had been built years earlier.
After working with the DPW’s stormwater coordinator, an agreement was reached on the stone size and placement, which the Planning Board approved at its Tuesday meeting.
Just before the board approved the modification, board member Marcus Phelps offered his thoughts.
“Now, the system hasn’t been tested by any huge downpours lately, so we should be good till next spring … maybe forever,” he said, which was echoed board member Diane Juzba.
“Hopefully, forever.”
