This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Future of Weston's Hobbs Pond Dam Debated

Voters to decide on pond restoration or dam removal at Town Meeting.

Two years after severe rainstorms caused the dam at Hobbs Pond to breach, Weston voters decide at Town Meeting in May whether to preserve the pond by building a new dam, or remove the dam and allow the area to revert to its original stream channel.

At a public meeting held by the Conservation Commission at the  on March 6, residents and abutters were presented with the economical, aesthetic and ecological impacts of several options for rebuilding the dam, which broke in March 2010 following a rainy period that culminated in a one-day 10-inch downpour, as well as what commission members called brook restoration—removing the dam and allowing the stream to follow a natural course, or one built for it.

While the options presented and residents' reactions varied, Conservation Commission chair Laurie Bent cautioned attendees to make no mistake—the area, located in the 80-acre conservation land off Lexington Road, is going to change significantly, regardless of how they vote in May.

Find out what's happening in Westonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I suspect everyone would agree that Hobbs Pond was a lovely place,” she said. “But we all need to face the reality that the old Hobbs Pond is gone. Now our job is to decide what we want the new landscape to look like.”

A sizable crowd turned out to learn about and weigh in on the options, which, in terms of pond restoration, would involve the construction of either a 30- or 50-foot dam. Conservation administrator Michele Grzenda said those lengths are required by regulations mandating that a dam or spillway must be able to handle a 50-year storm, a term given to describe the probability of a certain amount of rain occurring in a 50-year period.

Find out what's happening in Westonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Those lengths were depicted with neon-colored tape along various points on the Community Center walls to give attendees a visual of those distances, both of which measure significantly greater than the 14-foot breached dam—which coincidentally was to have remediation done to it the very week it broke, said Grzenda.

“It could not hold back the floodwater of what had been a wet winter in combination with heavy spring rains,” Grzenda said.

Cost estimates, crowd reaction

With the 30-foot dam option, said Grzenda, the pond’s current water level, now two feet lower than it was before the breach, would remain the same. If a 50-foot spillway is built, that level would likely rise by a foot.

The costs of those restorations were projected at $451,000 and $500,000 respectively, with some $317,000 in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds allotted in both scenarios as well as $80,000 in FEMA funds.

The dam removal option resulted from inquiries by some residents, after which the commission held a meeting in December to discuss the possibility. In that scenario, said Grzenda, once the dam is removed the pond will either follow its own course, called passive downstream release, or one set for it with excavating equipment.

Either option would dramatically change what is there today, she said.

Project consultant and scientist Nick Nelson said in time the brook could entail some deeper pools and shallower areas as well as any number of vegetation types, and showed various renderings of the area with a trail and a bridge over the brook. The cost of that option is projected at either $160,000 if the stream is simply released, or $246,000 if excavation is involved.

Not included in any projected costs were bridge enhancements that would improve recreational possibilities, Grzenda said.

During the meeting, the commission asked for an informal show of hands that indicated the number in favor of pond preservation and dam removal was nearly equal, with several residents making impassioned statements about their positions.

Lifelong resident Charlie Hunt, whose family built Hobbs Pond along with the Dumaine family in the 1950s, recalled the area as a slow-moving marsh before the pond was built and said he found it “hard to visualize” the renderings shown by Nelson that depicted recreational activities in the would-be brook area as “actually happening.”

Another pond proponent, David Scadden, said it was the “extraordinary aesthetic effect” of the pond that “makes Weston a special place.”

“The idea of creating a marshy area is a choice I can’t imagine making and (one) I think we’d regret for generations,” he said.

Longtime Lexington Street resident John Fiske raised his hand in favor of restoring the brook and said that while he felt the pond “had been a very special place, there were advantages and disadvantages to either scenario,” while another abutter, Alan Strassman, said he felt it would take a “great act of faith to believe (there would) actually be a stream if the dam were removed and not just a swamp or a bog.”

Commission votes on ballot question

At the end of the evening, commission members voted to determine which scenario would appear on the ballot at Town Meeting, with Bent explaining at the meeting’s outset that the commission’s goal was to give voters two choices—one of the dam restoration options and a version of the brook restoration option, either with the passive release or human-made brook path.

Ultimately, a majority vote of 3-2 determined that the 30-foot spillway option will appear on the ballot.

“I know the 50-foot dam will add another foot to the pond but the aesthetics bother me,” said member Joyce Schwartz.

But members did not vote on which brook-restoration scenario to include on the ballot, citing both the need for additional information and a previous agreement to include in that discussion two members from the commission who did not attend the meeting. The meeting wrapped with a determination to continue that portion of the hearing at either the March 20 or April 3 Conservation Commission meeting.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?