Lunenburg Planning Board Continues Zero Reservoir Road Stormwater Case Amid Maintenance Dispute

LUNENBURG — April 13, 2026 — Lunenburg Planning Board continues stormwater hearings and accepts $21,260 bond for Electric Avenue occupancy. The board voted unanimously Monday to continue public hearings for both 222 West Townsend Road and Zero Reservoir Road to April 27, with both cases pending a response from peer reviewer Graves Engineering. The Zero Reservoir Road discussion dominated the evening, as Chair Matthew Burney repeatedly pressed engineer Justin LeClaire of McCarty Engineering on how three future homeowners would be legally bound to maintain a shared set of interconnected stone depressions and pipes designed to handle large storm events at the Goodrich Street intersection. "I remain concerned that we're setting up three neighbors for litigation in the future when someone doesn't do their part," Burney said, calling a shared maintenance association "an uphill sell" without enforceable language. Planning Director Stephen Reed committed to bringing draft easement language to Town Counsel before the April 27 meeting. The board also voted unanimously to accept a $21,260 cash bond — inclusive of a 30 percent escalator — for 181 Electric Avenue, allowing applicant Masao Brazin of Alpha Design to seek a certificate of occupancy, and recommended the Select Board decline a right of first refusal on a 17.57-acre parcel at 35 Leominster Road, priced at approximately $400,000.