Meredith maintenance building would intrude into brook’s buffer zone

MEREDITH — The town would build a $7.6 million, 13,100-square-foot maintenance building adjacent to the Meredith recycling center and in the buffer zone for Hawkins Brook under an application the Planning Board will consider at 4 p.m. today.

The Meredith Conservation Commission has expressed concern in writing, noting the brook is a tributary to Meredith Bay and that the Laverack Nature Trail was recently developed along the stream's lower portion.

Bonds to fund the building were approved at town meeting in 2019. It will replace the town’s current highway garage.

Ralph Pisapia, of the Conservation Commission, said in the letter to the town that buffer zones can slow the flow of surface water into streams, stabilize stream banks, provide food, cover and water for animals and serve as migration routes between habitats. He also mentioned the trail-building effort on the southern end of the brook.

“Large amounts of monetary and human resources were expended on the latter effort so residents and visitors could have an in town nature experience demonstrating the pride and will of the people for a viable and healthy Hawkins Brook ecosystem,” he said.

“The plan to redevelop the current site along Hawkins Brook as an expanded DPW facility is not one the Conservation Commission can embrace from a natural resource protection perspective.

“An added concern is that the current proposal to construct a 13,100 square foot building is not the final adverse impact to expect on this site. The plan shows the location of a 12,000 square foot building for future construction, all of which will be placed within the Hawkins Brook 100-foot protective buffer.”

Town Manager Phil Warren said the state would have to approve the proposal, given its proximity to the water.

The area where the building would be placed, 11 Jenness Hill Road, has been degraded from its natural state for years.

“My brief understanding is that we will now be treating and handling 100% of the runoff from both the building and site through a filtration system which is not the case today – at present the drainage at the site ‘sheet flows’ in many directions including in the direction of the brook,” Warren said.

Pisapia acknowledged in his letter that the brook’s buffer zone is not in a natural state near the building site.

“Suffice it to say that Hawkins Brook through the length of the proposed project site currently appears as a degraded ecosystem with noxious and invasive native vegetative species likely caused by years of abuse and neglect,” he said. “These poor habitat conditions could and should be improved with some positive mitigative actions, however.”