AMHERST — A significantly changed wetland shown on plans for an expanded gravel parking lot on Olympia Drive could trigger the need for a private review of the University of Massachusetts project.

“The configuration of the wetland appears to have changed dramatically and the size of the delineation seems to have changed,” Wetlands Administrator Erin Jacque told the Conservation Commission at its Aug. 23 meeting, where it continued a review of the proposed expansion of Lot 13.

For Jacque, the worry is that a wetland shown on the map submitted for the parking lot project is smaller and farther away from the project area in 2023 than it was in 2020, even though 2023 has been a far wetter year.

“I do think that it would be valuable for the commission to have a third party look at this site to determine whether the third party would agree with the extent of the wetland,” Jacque said.

SWCA Environmental Consultants of Amherst, working on behalf of UMass, said they submitted accurate information and would like to move the project forward.

Historic wetlands violation

In addition to the worry about the accuracy of the submission from SWCA Environmental, Jacque said she also discovered a historic wetlands violation on Olympia Drive that has potentially been in existence for decades, even as the commission has previously allowed UMass to do work on its parking lots on the street, which were originally developed as part of a future fraternity/sorority park for the university.

Jacque said the historic violation likely dates to between 1974 and 1981, when what she described as a “huge wetland system” was filled in on Olympia Drive and the hydrologic connectivity to a stream system was cut off, which has been lost for decades.

Jacque said the more recent Lot 13 project could be a catalyst to correct a wrong that has impacted wetlands. “This plan does provide some leverage to the commission to require that those issues get corrected,” Jacque said.

Additionally, Jacque has flagged other potential violations by UMass on another parking lot project near Lot 13. She said the existing lot is just 5 feet from bordering vegetated wetlands and 25 feet from a vernal pool, which wasn’t noticed during a delineation in 2020.

SWCA wetland scientists Christin McDonough said accurate information has been provided to the commission. “We did not know about the vernal pool until 2023,” McDonough said.

McDonough also disputed that there had been any change to the wetland, calling it “bananas to me.”

Jacque said it’s possible that the GIS file she is using to determine the site of the current wetland has an error, though the submission may also be problematic. “If this is inaccurate, then the plan submitted to us is inaccurate,” Jacque said.

“The wetland didn’t change,” McDonough said. “We’re not getting one over on you and showing massively reduced wetlands.”

McDonough also protested the third-party review.

“Third-party reviews are for large, complicated notices of intent,” McDonough said. “This is a buffer-zone only, one-acre project.”

“It’s at applicant’s expense, I feel that is so unfair,” McDonough added.

UMass, though, is amenable to buffer zone plantings, she said. “They really just want to move this through at this point,” McDonough said.

McDonough said any historic violations on Olympia Drive should be kept as a separate project. “I will share this comment with UMass. I will leave it up to them,” McDonough said.

Jacque said town staff and the commission have tried to move the project along after it was submitted in May, but test pit data didn’t come until July. “We did our best to have this project heard as quick as possible,” Jacque said.

Commission member Alex Hoar said if the commission gets enough information before its next meeting on Sept 13, then a private consultant may not be needed.

But Hoar said everything should be handled together, including the previous violations, and that UMass will be motivated to rectify everything all at once.

“Now is the time to take care and tidy this whole thing up as a package,” Hoar said.

While commission member Andrey Guidera supported a third-party review, he said the historic violations may need to be handled on their own and outside the Lot 13 project.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>