It’s been a while since we had any hard news to report, and we are still waiting. However, we do want to report on what has happened over the last several weeks.

In brief, the Conservation Commission held its final hearing on the Notice of Intent (NOI) for Thorndike Place under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act (WPA) on March 6. Members reviewed and discussed the wetlands permit application and concluded with a 2-2 tie vote among the four eligible members, meaning the Commission recommended ‘No Action’ on the NOI.

On May 1, the Applicant (Arlington Land Realty LLC) filed an appeal of this vote with the Mass Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Georgia Pendergast, the environmental analyst with DEP’s Wetlands Program, accepted the appeal in accordance with the provisions of the WPA and scheduled a site visit for May 28. This inspection of the site with the respective parties and discussion of pertinent issues in the appeal is done in preparation for DEP’s issuance of a Superseding Order of Conditions (SOC). 

The Land Trust continues to be directly involved in this ongoing review process through the hiring of water resources consultants and legal counsel to monitor the appeal case and provide additional information to DEP and the Town. Our representatives at the site visit were able to present much of their research that had been part of the Con Com hearing, along with additional data gathered since March. The Select Board has also chimed in with a strong letter expressing the members’ concerns about the environmental impacts of the Thorndike Place project. We now await DEP’s decision.

The full records of the Con Com’s NOI hearing, including peer review and consultants’ reports, public comments, recordings of previous meetings, and the recent MassDEP appeal correspondence, are posted on the Commission’s Thorndike Place Wetlands Permit web page.