(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

A stalled site plan meets a firm clock. After eighteen months of drift, we confront a project that can’t infiltrate stormwater on-site and now proposes piping runoff off-site through a neighbor’s land. The idea could work—if the easement is real, the basin is designed, and the highway department signs off. Without those pieces, it’s a promise on paper. We push for specifics, listen to frustrated abutters, and set a non-negotiable path: re-notice, deliver a complete design by February 19, 2026, and expect a vote by the statutory time to act. No more last‑minute continuances. No more sketches in place of engineering.

Then we pivot to what right-sized planning looks like. A long-vacant, 65,000-square-foot grocery store on Route 44 will become a Greco Ford service and wholesale parts facility. Same curb cut. Slightly smaller footprint. Marginally less impervious surface. Clear hours, safety upgrades like bollards at the new glass frontage, proper floor drains with an oil‑water separator, and realistic expectations around light commercial vehicles and parts deliveries. It’s adaptive reuse that adds jobs without adding sprawl, and it moves from hearing to approval with straightforward waivers and a clean certificate of action.

This conversation lays bare the tradeoffs that shape local growth: drainage that actually drains, documents that actually bind, and hearings that respect the time of neighbors who live with the results. It also shows how a community can welcome investment when details are nailed down and impacts are managed. If you care about stormwater, easements, timelines, and the quiet power of reactivating dead retail, you’ll find a lot to think about here.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a neighbor who loves planning as much as we do, and leave a review to help more folks find thoughtful, on-the-ground conversations about how towns really work.

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