The Rochester Conservation Commission Tuesday night revealed that its dispute with the owner of 89 Box Turtle Drive over clearing land too close to wetlands without a permit has yet to be resolved nearly one year after the problem started. Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior told the board the property owner and his attorney had […] Read more »
At member Jon Henry’s request during Monday night’s public meeting, the Marion Planning Board debated the town’s inclusionary bylaw that requires developers of housing projects to include a percentage of affordable units or pay the town a compensation fee as an escape clause from the requirement. Now that Steen Realty has pulled its […] Read more »
The Rochester Select Board Monday night reviewed the 34 articles proposed for the spring Annual Town Meeting and instantly added one more, perhaps the most impactful of them all. Select Board member Brad Morse motioned to add an article that would remove the town as a Green Community, and the board unanimously agreed. […] Read more »
The March 21 meeting of the Marion Select Board was brief but dealt with a serious matter, public health. The board approved Westport’s management of the Southcoast Public Health Collaborative of which the town is part. The intermunicipal, shared-service agreement, joins the towns of Westport, Marion, Freetown, Lakeville, Mattapoisett and Rochester with sharing […] Read more »
Matt Armando, director of Public Health for the Town of Westport, appeared before the Marion Board of Health during its March 2 public meeting to seek the town’s participation in a Memorandum of Understanding for the Establishment and Maintenance of the South Coast Public Health Collaborative. The grant, according to Armando, is $300,000 […] Read more »
During the March 14 meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission, on this night chaired by commissioner Barry Lima, a longstanding Enforcement Order issued to Kenneth Wood, 1 Pinebrook Lane, was discussed. Brandon Faneuf, the commission’s environmental agent, said that he recently made a site visit to the Woods property where he not only found […] Read more »
If voters at Town Meeting agree, a tennis court in disrepair off Point Road will become four pickleball courts by the end of the year after the Marion Community Preservation Committee voted to recommend the Town of Marion Recreation Department’s request for $75,000 in Community Preservation Act funding. The request was one of […] Read more »
The Rochester Planning Board Tuesday granted one-year extensions to two solar photovoltaic system installation permits for projects on Featherbed Lane and Braley Hill Road. The representative for both plans, Greg Sampson of Boston-based Womble Bond Dickinson LLP, said the sticking point is that a group transmission multiyear study for solar projects in the […] Read more »
Select Board member Brad Morse told Tuesday afternoon’s meeting of Rochester’s Public Safety Building Feasibility Study Committee that he wouldn’t be surprised to hear suggestions at the annual Town Meeting that Rochester resign its status as a Green Community in Massachusetts. At issue is the cost of doing business, and in this case, the […] Read more »
Scott Machos will have his new shed but not without some lengthy deliberation on the part of the Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals, which approved a variance during a March 9 public hearing. Machos sought a variance under Chapter 20.40, Section E2 of the Rochester Zoning Bylaws for approval of the construction of a […] Read more »