The Woburn Conservation Commission accepted a resource-area delineation for the Reeves Elementary School grounds at 240 Lexington Street and voted to issue a draft Order of Resource Area Delineation after a presentation by the consultant who conducted the field work.

Jamie McCarthy, an environmental scientist with Horsley Witten Group, told the commission she delineated the southern portion of the parcel in July and identified an unnamed perennial stream running through the property with two bordering vegetated wetlands, an inland bank coincident with the mean annual high water line, limited land-under-water, riverfront area and overlapping buffer zones. McCarthy said the stream flows into the site under Parker Street through a culvert and exits toward Lexington Street through a second culvert; the channel was mostly dry at the time of the July fieldwork and had pooled water in some reaches.

The nut graf: the delineation matters because the mapped stream and wetlands are regulated under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act and the local wetlands ordinance; any future construction or site work at Reeves Elementary will be reviewed against those flagged resource areas and associated buffer zones.

In her walk‑through and presentation McCarthy said the smaller wetland (flagged on the map as the smaller “1”) was sparsely vegetated with loose sediment, while the larger wetland (flagged “2”) showed a mix of vegetation including invasive purple loosestrife and garlic mustard and abundant jewelweed along the maintained turf near the baseball field. McCarthy also reported a desktop review using MassGIS showed no FEMA flood zones in the immediate area but did show public water-supply resource areas that the city will consider for any future proposals.

Commission members who had walked the site told the panel the flagging matched field conditions. During public comment and commission discussion, administrative staff (Teresa Murphy) advised members about procedural follow-ups; one commissioner raised a separate, non-ANRAD procedural question about a long-standing dedication rock on the property and was directed to the mayor’s office for any memorial-retention request. No members of the public offered testimony on the ANRAD at the hearing.

After discussion the commission voted to close the public hearing and to issue a draft Order of Resource Area Delineation covering the flagged wetlands, bank and riverfront area associated with the unnamed perennial stream (DEP file 348-894). The motion passed on a voice vote; no numeric roll call was recorded in the transcript.

The commission noted that if a future proposal is submitted (for example a Notice of Intent for construction), stormwater, erosion-control and any impacts to the riverfront area or public water-supply resource areas will be reviewed in detail at that later filing stage. The commission also announced related community meetings about the property and nearby Fire Station 5 on October 14 and October 20.

Ending: The commission closed the ANRAD hearing and issued the draft order; the file will be available for future permit review if an applicant submits construction plans that trigger a Notice of Intent.