ConsCom looks at Powder Mill Square   Andover Townsman 11/4/99
By Rebecca Lipchitz                            

  While much of the discussion about the proposed Powder Mill Square housing project concerns affordable housing, the local Conservation Commission also needs to decide if it will hold water, so to speak.
  As proposed, it would be built in the Shawsheen River flood plain. But, in the event of a 100 year flood (a storm that creates flooding likely to happen only once every 100 years), the combined apartment complex and medical office building at the corner of  Stevens and North Main streets, is designed to flood on its bottom floor, an area reserved for parking.
  Northpoint Realty, the developers who proposed the project, also offered an easement to the town that would guarantee a certain amount of space on the property would be available to be flooded.
  That arrangement would have to be approved by town counsel but could be beneficial, says Cons-Com member Paul Finger.
  Such an arrangement may have to include a provision that requires the building to be removed under certain circumstances, Finger says.
"There is a risk of flooding. If he (the developer) can live with those restrictions, I think it's an innovative way of dealing with this," Finger says.
  Bylaws also require buildings in the flood plain to be "flood proof," Finger says, he asked Inspector of Buildings Kaija Gilmore if it would violate building code to allow the parking garage to be flooded.
  Gilmore says that "flood-proof' structures are not necessarily waterproof structures, since a building designed to flood and allow water to flow through, the way water flows under a bridge, is more flood proof than a sealed building, where water pressure could build up from the outside.
The Powder Mill Square design doesn't violate that part of the building code, Gilmore says.
  As the building department investigates the need for a special permit, some residents say the building would add to existing flooding and disturb the Shawsheen River watershed area.
  Resident Pat Robbins says he believes that because the area on which the building would be built is not entirely paved, adding impervious structures to the area would increase regular storm water flooding in the area.
  Kevin Talbot, a New Hampshire resident who works as an AVIS warden for the Shawsheen River area and is a founding member of the Shawsheen River Watershed Association, said he thought asking how the river would affect the building was the wrong approach.
  "This project is basically becoming part of the river. Do we want to talk about it as a river, or as a storm drain? It's a great resource we have here in Andover, but we're abusing it," Talbot told Commission members Thursday.