The previously proposed 40R TCSGOD in 2022 included property behind the VFW accessed by Leighton Street. See the parcel map location here. It is privately owned land by a local builder/developer within the suburban residential zoning district.
The land in question is an area of critical environmental concern - ACEC. Here are several links to environmental maps of the area. The area includes the Reedy Meadow Brook Here:, important deciduous cover here: flood zones here: Here is the link to the WRPOD (water resource protection overlay district) map showing the two Jersey Street wellheads. What is important to note is that this entire ACEC and WRPOD area is rimmed by the VFW, the post office, the proposed public safety complex, the DPW garage facility and the Jersey Street fire department.
Here is a proposed Leighton Landing site plan from 2022.
Many concerns about this site have been expressed in letters to the Planning Board and DHCD. Here are links to letters from the NRWA (Nashua River Watershed Association), the Climate Change Council, and the Conservation Commission.
We excerpt the NRWA letter regarding the ACEC and build-out of the area:
“There are additional concerns about impacts that development of the Leighton Street site may have on sensitive water supply resources. The Leighton Street site is of particular concern due to its location just north of the two Jersey STreet wells, and the sensitive, high-quality water resources underlying the property. The entire Leighton Street site is over the aquifer for these wells. The site’s southwest portion is over high yield aquifer; the rest is over medium yield aquifer, and the site is entirely within Zone 3, the Aquifer-Watershed Protection Zone (AWPZ) of the Water Resource Protection Overlay District (WRPOD). It is adjacent to the Zone 2 Well Protection Zone (WPZ) and serves as the “secondary recharge area” for Zone 2. These zones were created specifically to protect the land, surface water, and groundwater that impact the quality of the water being contributed to the Jersey Street wells.”
The letter goes on to note that the proposed buildings and parking lots are within the 100’ buffer zone and that these impenetrable surfaces prevent rain water from infiltrating to groundwater thus replenishing the aquifer. The result is a lowered water table that can be of particular concern during drought periods. The concern is also that whatever rainwater manages to infiltrate will contain contaminants from parking lots and roofs that will reach the area groundwater. The removal of forest and other land covers will also compromise the area’s ability to preserve the quantity and quality of the groundwater entering the aquifer from which our public water is drawn.
At issue here are communities’ management of public water sources so in 2012 the State issued new regulations that, as the NRWA letter notes require “clear, predictable and science-based permitting, (that) ensure prudent and sustainable use of water, maintain healthy watersheds and gradually improve degraded ones.”
The importance of protecting open space to protect our water sources cannot be overstressed. A responsible approach to this valuable land is for the town to acquire it, using Community Preservation Act money and ARPA money to do so.