Hamilton Planning Board Continues Tobacco Hill Senior Housing Hearing to April

HAMILTON -- March 15, 2022, Hamilton Planning Board spends marathon session on groundwater questions for proposed 50-unit senior housing project. The board held a technical Q-and-A on the Tobacco Hill Capital Partners development at 133 Essex Street, fielding roughly 50 written questions directed at the applicant's engineering team and the town's independent peer reviewer, James Emery of GZA GeoEnvironmental. Emery and applicant hydrogeologist Rick Frappa testified that blasting on granite bedrock would expose only roughly 10,000 gallons of stored groundwater against more than 150 million gallons in nearby aquifers, dismissing the risk of nitrate contamination reaching Back Pond as "unmeasurable." Ransom Engineering, representing citizens group Save Tobacco Woods, called for a $150,000, seven-month site-specific hydrogeological study that Frappa and Emery said was unnecessary. Stormwater peer reviewer Peter Ellison of TEC said the system meets state standards and exceeds the 100-year storm threshold by 10 percent. The board voted unanimously to continue the hearing to April 5, 2022.