Watertown officials hope to help Renzi Foodservice with stormwater issues

Jan. 25—WATERTOWN — The city hopes to resolve some stormwater runoff issues that are causing headaches for the expansion at the Renzi Foodservice facility in the City Center Industrial Park on South Bellew Avenue.

For months, the expansion plans at the industrial park have been put on hold by wetlands concerns from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

City officials place some of the blame on excess stormwater runoff that comes into the industrial park, causing more land in the park to become wetlands.

The DEC protects wetlands from disturbances related to development. The company needs a permit from the DEC to proceed with its expansion plans and can't get one until the wetlands issue is resolved.

City Manager Kenneth A. Mix said the region is getting intense rainstorms more often in recent years, which then causes water flows to exceed the capacity of the city's stormwater system in some areas of the city.

That excess stormwater ends up in the city's industrial park and on the Renzi property. Since the company moved to the park 15 years ago, more industrial park land has been declared wetlands, Mr. Mix said.

The wetlands situation has changed so much that a drainage ditch grew into a small stream and the company's water retention ponds have taken on so much water that the DEC now considers them wetlands.

"It's the only time that I know of that a built retention pond is wetlands," Mr. Mix said during a City Council work session Monday night.

After hearing about what the company is facing, council members on Monday night agreed to update the city's stormwater management plan in the hopes of alleviating the stormwater problems at the industrial park. The study also will look at stormwater runoff issues citywide.

The basins that drain into the city industrial park will get the city's first attention.

The company is in the midst of building a 38,176-square-foot addition to create more warehouse space and improve parking for its trucks.

As the Renzi project was initially designed, the retention pond would have been created within 100 feet of the wetlands, or within a buffer zone of some wetlands. The DEC is requiring the company to move the retention pond to another part of the project site, so it won't violate DEC wetlands regulations. Company co-owner John Renzi said the company plans to submit new plans to the DEC in February for the retention pond.

Mr. Renzi has become increasingly frustrated with the wetlands issue.

"We're held hostage and we can't do anything until this is resolved," he said.

The company has spent about $400,000 more on the project since the wetlands issue surfaced over the summer, he said.

Mr. Renzi blamed the city's stormwater system woes, adding that he's talked to city officials several times over the years about it.

In August, council members agreed to use federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay for the stormwater study. The city will soon retain an engineering firm to work on it. Meanwhile, the company was able to resolve a different wetlands issue with the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers involving the tiny stream.

Mr. Renzi also attended Monday night's work session to lobby for a second entrance into the industrial park that would ease truck traffic in and out of the park.

Council members took no action Monday on a $4.6 million project. Plans call for extending a road from Waterman Drive in the park over to the Raymour & Flanigan Furniture and Mattress Store plaza and creating the entrance at the plaza entrance.

Council members agreed to delay taking action until a study on creating a second entrance is completed by the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The MPO — a group consisting of city, county and state Department of Transportation officials who look at transportation issues — is expected to discuss the second entrance during its Feb. 24 meeting.

The city won't contact the four or five owners whose property would be impacted by the road until council decides it will proceed with the project, Mr. Mix said.