Infrastructure
We need a traffic study.
Our infrastructure cannot handle additional vehicle or pedestrian traffic. There are no sidewalks on Sandwich Road. On school mornings, there will be an additional 300-600 cars, creating safety concerns.
There are 265 homes in the area. The addition of these four-story apartment buildings will double, or even triple, the traffic on Sandwich Road. This doesn’t even include the summer traffic.
300+ proposed apartments, and no sidewalks on Sandwich Road. This will create an abundance of foot traffic. With so many pedestrians living in one location, walking to downtown amenities would become dangerous.
Light & Sound Pollution
Another study should be conducted.
During daylight hours, four-story buildings will cast huge shadows. At night, the entire area would be lit up. With the parking lot lights, window lights, and car lights, it will feel like Fenway Park is in our backyards.
Construction noise, as well as the noise that would become present upon completion, would affect the area for years to come. There will be constant, daily noise complaints, which will overwhelm the police department.
This will also cause psychological effects for some people.
There is no mitigation that will solve this problem, like Mass Housing and Saxon Partners suggest.
Hydrology
There needs to be a study that demonstrates the ability to sustain an additional 300+ apartments on our current aquifer. Falmouth already faces water restrictions every year.
If a leaching field is created under the open space and adjacent properties, this project will overburden Falmouth’s waste water and potable water capacities.
Excess nitrogen leaching from septic systems threaten our aquifer.
A nitrogen loading study needs to be conducted.
The town is under a mandate from the State to reduce nitrogen input into our rivers and bays.
As of April 2023, and recently updated in July, Mass DEP’s new wastewater regulation shows that Saxon Partners' project, located at 375 Sandwich Road, falls within a Natural Resource Area watershed that the DEP deems as a Nitrogen Sensitive Area. This area includes Coonamesset River, Great Pond, and Green Pond.
Environmental
There needs to be an environmental study conducted.
The land is populated with adult and juvenile Eastern Box Turtles. They feed at the Coonamessett River, as well as the forest, and migrate to nest. They are listed as a "species of special concern" by Mass Wildlife. We will submit a report to Mass Wildlife’s endangered species program, because they have been located on our properties.
We respectfully disagree with Saxon Partners' statement that dirtbikes and ATVs have destroyed the habitat. Our habitats are alive and well with different types of plants and animals, such as lady slippers, hawks, owls, turtles, bald eagles, blue herons, foxes, deer, coyotes, muscrats, mallards, Canadian geese, migratory birds, and many more species of concern that make this migration corridor their home.
The Saxon Partners project would also cause irreversible damage to the Coonamessett River Restoration. This project cost us over $5 million in state and federal funds. Three state agencies and four federal agencies, along with 40 partners, were involved.
Saxon Partners' massive construction is adjacent to the Connamessett River Restoration. This will result in a large volume of town water directed to the site, containing nitrogen and other pollutants, to be discharged into the groundwater.
The Coonamesset River Restoration is dependent on cool and highly oxygenated water for the native fish habitat, including the brook trout population that was successfully restored. Four other fish species could be threatened as well. This includes the white perch, American eel, and two different species of herring. There will be contamination going into the ground water from these massive four-story apartment buildings, traveling downhill into the Coonamessett River.
Pollutants, altered oxygen levels, and altered temperatures in the water will destroy the 12 years of planning and work that went into the completion of the Coonamessett River Restoration.
Let’s not forget the noise and light pollution affecting the recovering wildlife populations in the Coonamessett Greenway. Destroying 15 acres of forest will cause storm water drainage concerns to the Coonamesset Greenway, as well as the houses east of the project.
Density Issues
If there are 2.5 people per unit, which is the density of people at Saxon Partners' proposed housing site, that would be 50 people per acre.
Now compare that to a density of 1.15 people per acre in Falmouth.
21 people per acre in Boston.
42 people per acre in New York City.
MassHousing is allowing Saxon Partners to build a metropolis located in the middle of four rural neighborhoods.
The first stage of 300 apartments, once fully populated, will increase Falmouth’s population by an additional 2% on "only" 15 acres of land.
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