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Community Corner

Cons Com Issues Work-Stop Order on Taylor Cove

The Conservation Commission denied the application for Taylor Cove and ordered all work to be stopped on the River Street development.

Contractors won't be spending much time on the construction site at 93 River St. after town officials issued a stop-work order in conjunction with a long-standing development proposal.

On Tuesday night, the Conservation Commission both denied an application for Taylor Cove and issued a work-stop permit for Victoria Place. The rulings come after the developers for Taylor Cove opted to withdraw their application for the development on June 22.

The developers have expressed an interest to take the case to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, after refusing to participate any longer in the public hearing.

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The Taylor Cove Development started with the construction of a road and infrastructure by using the Permit Extensions Act from a permit received over a decade ago to work on a separate project called Victoria Place, which was originally intended to be single family homes. The Victoria Place permit will expire in May 2012.

After the Commission ruled that the Victoria Place permit does not apply to Taylor Cove two weeks ago, they decided to put a stop to all work being done on the property.

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The work-stop permit was a source of debate among the Commission, as they disputed whether they could use an administrative subpoena to force Taylor Cove to provide whether the underground work has been for building under the guidelines and restrictions, under the Victoria Place permit. With the work-stop order, that was not needed.

“[The work order] should stop them in their tracks,” said Hillcrest Road resident Frances Wheeler. “Other than maybe stabilizing soil piles.”

According to Wheeler, construction has been on and off over the last few weeks, but one thing she found interesting was that a detainment pond had not drained after more than a day and a half of rain.

Commission member Floyd Greenwood advocated that the Commission have a work-stop order put in for Taylor Cove, due to a lack of information provided by the developers as to whether the work being done was for Taylor Cove, or Victoria Place. Chairman Donald Cooper abstained from the voting because he was not present at the last meeting, and the order passed on a 3-1 vote.

Taylor Cove is expected to appeal Tuesday night’s decision.

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