Boxborough Planning Board approves Liberty Square Road fence, continues Codman Hill trade shop hearing

BOXBOROUGH -- June 3, 2024, Boxborough Planning Board clears years-old fence condition at gravel site abutting Liberty Fields. The board voted 5-0 on June 3 to approve a seven-foot black mesh screening fence and 16 Colorado blue spruce plantings at 1160 Liberty Square Road, resolving a condition left open since the site's original site plan approval required the operator, Mark Lombardo of Lombardo, to return with board agreement on the fence location, material, and screening plan before installation. After extended deliberation over fence placement relative to a drainage swale, the board agreed the fence would be installed at the top of the berm on the inward side of the property line, with the spruce trees planted on the outward face facing the adjacent municipal ball fields; the board's planning director annotated the site plan PDF live during the Zoom session to memorialize the agreed location. A separate site plan hearing for a three-unit trade shop at 100 Codman Hill Road was continued to June 17 after applicant Paul Kirchner of Stampske and McInery acknowledged he could not yet resolve a question about whether a formal earth removal waiver is needed for the project's planned removal of approximately 900 cubic yards of material, and the board had not had time to review a peer-review letter submitted by engineer Sue Carter the afternoon of the meeting.