By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Residents will be able to provide feedback on the town’s draft Hazard Mitigation Plan from now through Wednesday, Oct. 29.
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) Senior Environmental Advisor Martin Pillsbury said during the Select Board’s Sept. 29 meeting that the council helped the town update its Hazard Mitigation Plan. He said municipalities from across the country have created similar plans.
“A Hazard Mitigation Plan helps a community understand the risks of natural hazards and looks at programs you can put in place that are going to help you be more resilient and less vulnerable to those hazards,” said Pillsbury. “The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 is administered by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) at the national level and in turn is administered by each state. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) is running the program in Massachusetts. They in turn work with towns and cities, and use regional planning agencies like ours as a service provider to get these kinds of plans put together.”
Pillsbury said the Hazard Mitigation Plan is the third plan created for the town. He said the first plan was created in 2009 and the plan was last updated in 2018.
“This is not new,” said Pillsbury. “It is actually an update of a plan you had in place before. My agency, MAPC, helped you put the previous plans together. Updating this plan will bring it to current conditions.”
Pillsbury said the Hazard Mitigation Plan seeks to identify ways to help the town plan for “multiple natural hazards” such as flooding.
“Flooding is by far and away the most common one not only in Lynnfield, but most of the communities in our region,” said Pillsbury.
Pillsbury also said the Hazard Mitigation Plan seeks to help the town plan for other natural hazards such as droughts, wild fires and extreme temperatures.
“With the droughts we have had in recent years, wild fires have become more front-and-center,” said Pillsbury.
Pillsbury also said the Hazard Mitigation Plan seeks to help the town plan for other natural hazards such as thunderstorms, hurricanes and tornadoes. He also said the plan seeks to help the town plan for responses to blizzards and nor’easters during the winter, and potential “geologic hazards” such as earthquakes and landslides.
“All categories of natural hazards fall within this plan,” said Pillsbury.
Pillsbury said the Hazard Mitigation Plan has identified “high priority” mitigation areas for the town to focus on and address. In order to address flooding issues impacting areas by Reedy Meadow, the plan recommends that the town pursue an inter-municipal dam for the Saugus River and Reedy Meadow. The Hazard Mitigation Plan also recommends developing a “beaver management program for the Reedy Meadow area.”
Additionally, the plan recommends that the town continue maintaining Hawkes Brook as well as make drainage improvements at Rourke Lane at Lowell Street. The Hazard Mitigation Plan also identified addressing inter-municipal flooding in the Lynnbrook Road, Ledge Road and the Nells Pond area.
The Hazard Mitigation Plan also recommends that the town and the Lynnfield Center Water District (LCWD) continue collaborating with the North Shore Water Resilience Task Force as a high priority area. According to MAPC’s website, “the goal of the North Shore Water Resilience Task Force is to ensure water supply resilience within the Ipswich River Watershed while improving ecosystem health.”
Pillsbury said another high priority identified on the Hazard Mitigation Plan recommends that the town install an automated water level control system at the Pillings Pond Dam.
The Hazard Mitigation Plan also identifies planning for “medium priority” mitigation measures. Pillsbury said a medium priority the Hazard Mitigation Plan identified recommends convening “regional collaboration on fire mitigation” and purchasing off-road firefighting equipment for Lynn Woods and Willis Woods off of Main Street.
“Right next door in Lynn, you have had serious wildfires the last two years due to droughts,” said Pillsbury. “It hopefully hasn’t affected you directly but you are so close by that it makes the point it is something you need to look at.”
Pillsbury also said another medium priority identified in the Hazard Mitigation Plan recommends assessing municipal buildings to make sure roofs have the “ability to withstand snow loads.” He said another medium priority area included on the plan recommends that the town conduct a tree risk assessment for snow loads.
“Wind hazards that cause trees to fall and power outages are one of the critical impacts that we get in those events,” said Pillsbury.
Pillsbury said the Hazard Mitigation Plan will serve as a “roadmap for the things that the town can do over the next five or so years.”
After FEMA and MEMA approve the Hazard Mitigation Plan and the Select Board votes to adopt it, Pillsbury said the town will be eligible to receive grants from FEMA.
“If FEMA has approved a town’s plan, you will then be eligible to receive project grants that actually fund projects on the ground such as drainage projects and that sort of thing,” said Pillsbury.
In order to update the town’s Hazard Mitigation Plan, Pillsbury said MAPC worked with the Hazard Mitigation Team that consists of Town Administrator Rob Dolan, Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis, Police Chief Nick Secatore, Department of Public Works (DPW)/LCWD Director John Scenna, Planning and Conservation Director Emilie Cademartori, Health Director Coral Hope and a representative from Peabody Municipal Light Plant. He said the team participated in four meetings in order to provide MAPC with a variety of data.
“I am very impressed and I am so glad they were able to spend the time to share their knowledge with us,” said Pillsbury. “It documents a lot of things that were just in people’s heads before.”
Select Board Chair Phil Crawford agreed with Pillsbury that the town has “great department heads.”
“We really do,” said Crawford.
Pillsbury said residents will have the opportunity to review the updated Hazard Mitigation Plan for the month of October.
“We are welcoming folks to review it, ask any questions, and send any suggestions or comments about the plan,” said Pillsbury.
If residents want to review the plan, Pillsbury said they can visit https://www.lynnfieldma.gov/636/Hazard-Mitigation-Planning-2025 in order to download it. He also said residents can submit comments about the plan by sending an email to LynnfieldResilience@mapc.org.
“After public review, we will finalize the plan and submit it,” said Pillsbury. “FEMA and MEMA will be reviewing the plan to make sure it meets all of their very specific standards. The last step in the process is for the plan to come back to the Select Board to take a vote to adopt the plan officially as a town plan. Once that vote of adoption is taken, you will get a formal letter of approval from FEMA that says it is approved for the next five years. That is the period during which you would be eligible for FEMA grants for the next five years.”
Crawford asked Pillsbury how long will it take for MAPC to incorporate residents’ feedback into the Hazard Mitigation Plan before it is sent to FEMA and MEMA for review.
“That will depend on what comments we get and how substantial they are,” said Pillsbury. “It should be a few weeks. It will then go to FEMA and MEMA, and that will be a few months. It will be early next year in the winter when it will come back from FEMA and a request for a vote to adopt it.”
Dolan said the Emergency Management Team recently met with Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson and Lynn officials in the Al Merritt Media and Cultural Center to discuss “major flooding issues that are a result of us affecting Lynn or Lynn affecting us.”
“We are trying to have a plan to solve these problems,” said Dolan.
Dolan also said the town has received preliminary approval for a federal grant that will be shared with Middleton and North Reading that will be used to purchase “new fire apparatus for brush fires.” He also said the LCWD is now receiving supplemental water from the MWRA via Wakefield that will be used to address fire and drought issues.
“This plan has resulted in a better quality of life for the people of Lynnfield,” said Dolan.