Easthampton Conservation Commission Continues Two Housing Cases, Approves Stormwater Basin Fix

EASTHAMPTON — August 25, 2025 — Easthampton Conservation Commission continues two housing development applications and approves a stormwater basin repair at its August 25 meeting. The commission continued the Notice of Intent for a scaled-back housing project at 385 Main Street by The Community Builders, Inc. — now a single building on roughly four acres, down from three buildings — after peer reviewer Scott Hughes-Tarkle raised concerns including freeboard as low as one inch on detention basins and unconfirmed saturated hydraulic conductivity values that underpin the entire stormwater model, telling commissioners "right now I'm seeing averages being used for the critical variables." A second housing application at 35 Pleasant Street for Norwich Property, LLC was also continued after the commission declined to accept the applicant's argument that proposed infiltration systems qualify as dry wells exempt from the stormwater handbook's 100-foot slope setback, with members saying a full geotechnical slope stability analysis remains the most defensible path forward; the developer has indicated the project's viability depends on beginning foundation work this winter. Both items were continued to September 15. The commission unanimously approved a minor modification to a chronically underperforming stormwater basin at Steppler Crossing on Loudville Road, allowing the applicant to raise the basin floor elevation and adjust the outlet orifice to achieve the required 72-hour drawdown, with bank loaming and seeding to follow this fall.