MONTAGUE CENTER — An incorrectly paved roadway at Burek Drive that was approved by a 1969 Town Meeting vote as a public way requires the town to accept an amended roadway layout to allow for future land use.
Montague Town Planner Maureen Pollock joined the town’s Selectboard last week to discuss this 56-year-old mistake in the road’s layout that is impacting properties owned by the Leh Family Realty Trust at 2 Burek Drive and the Burek Trust at 4 Burek Drive.
“Unfortunately, whoever built the actual paved road built it in the wrong location and that was discovered at some point,” Pollock told the Selectboard.
The Montague Planning Board received a request from legal representation from both trusts to correct the issue. To formalize the request, Pollock provided a series of motions to the Selectboard after the Montague Department of Public Works and the Montague Center Fire Department approved the new layout. These included motions to “discontinue and abandon” the roadway layout of Burek Drive that was approved in 1969, accept the revised public roadway layout of Burek Drive and accept a 15-foot-wide sewer easement under the revised layout in favor of 4 Burek Drive. Each motion was approved unanimously.
The Montague Board of Health had expressed concern that the septic system for 4 Burek Drive was failing to protect public health, and the town ordered that the septic system be upgraded within one year. The 15-foot-wide easement will be necessary to help the system come back into compliance, according to Pollock.
With the Selectboard’s approval in hand, the petitioners will need to submit an Approval Not Required (ANR) to the Planning Board with adjusted property lines on the revised layout that will then need approval from voters at a fall Special Town Meeting.