Part 1: Nstar Representatives Address Mitigation Plans

Wayland residents and officials asked plenty of questions Wednesday night as representatives from Nstar made related to clear-cutting under transmission lines through the Oak Hill Road and Meadowview Road neighborhoods.

The questions were largely related to how Nstar will care for the neighbors and land impacted when the utility cleared the right-of-way that runs from Framingham, through Wayland and into Sudbury; however, some confusion over Nstar’s plans to use herbicides in town also emerged.

We will cover the two-hour discussion in three parts. This first part addresses mitigation for individual homeowners. Parts 2 and 3 will follow Friday and Saturday and will address the town’s water supply (Part 2) and Nstar's plans for herbicide usage (Part 3).

Selectmen Joe Nolan agreed that Nstar had the right to clear the land, but pressed the issue of how Nstar could claim the desire to be a “good neighbor” yet fail to compromise at all when it came to clear-cutting the right-of-way and taking as many as 30 trees from some residents’ property. Nolan asked why those trees had been allowed to grow for decades, but suddenly had to be removed at the ground rather than trimmed.

“It’s one thing to have the right to do something, it’s another to do the right thing,” Nolan said. “I’m very disappointed by Nstar. I don’t underestimate your legal right to do so, but I just don’t understand how you can come in here and express to be good neighbors. Why didn’t Nstar exercise some discretion?”

Bill Hayes, Nstar’s senior arborist in charge of vegetation maintenance, explained that expectations for vegetation in the transmission line right-of-way have changed.

“From our own company’s standards … there is not a tolerance for having a tree-related outage on our right-of-way from trees we could have controlled,” he said.

Hayes assured Nolan that Nstar will work with neighbors to replace removed vegetation in landscaped areas with plants and trees that are compatible with Nstar’s requirements for vegetation in the right-of-way.

“If it was in a lawn area where people maintained that, we will definitely do those,” Hayes said, explaining what Nstar meant by “landscaped area.” “It may not fulfill everyone’s expectations … but we will in good faith work with every property owner to come up with a plan.”

Hayes said he plans to be in the neighborhood next Wednesday, July 25, to meet with residents on an appointment basis and begin discussions of the mitigation plans.

“We’re going to try and get through this the best we can,” Hayes said. “The wrong trees were there. We had to deal with this. We’re at this ground zero where we can get plants that are compatible in there for the future.”

Hayes said the hope is to create individualized plans for mitigation during July and August with implementation of those plans taking place in September, October and November.

Meadowview Road resident Scott Machanic said he and neighbor Robert Noa have been tapped by a newly formed neighborhood group to serve as liaisons to Nstar when it comes to the mitigation plan discussions. He asked that Hayes work through them to schedule appointments with affected residents.

“Please try to be a good neighbor,” Machanic encouraged. “Act as if you were one of the people living in the neighborhood. Come up with a plan that makes this neighborhood look good.”

What do you think about Nstar's actions and the response to local outcry? Will these events make you think twice about purchasing property with a utility easement?