Hubbardston Conservation Commission Sets Special Meeting on Stalled Birches Road Lot

HUBBARDSTON -- September 9, 2025, Hubbardston Conservation Commission schedules special September 23 meeting on two-year-old Birches Road lot application. Chair Brian Larchell and members Tony Coppola, Brock Germinara, and Chris Pirner voted unanimously to continue Lot A on Birches Road to a special session in two weeks, after a consultant explained that DEP had only just issued a file number following a lengthy dispute over 100-year flood plain delineation along Templeton Brook, with disturbance confirmed at 8.7 percent of the riverfront area, just under the 10 percent cap. The applicant, who is under contract to buy the lot and faces imminent seller pressure, said October 7 would be too late to save the deal. The commission also issued a unanimous negative determination for a Comet Pond dock rebuilt without a local wetlands filing, and approved, 3-0-1, a plan amendment upgrading town culverts on Brigham Street and Barry Road from 36-inch to 48-inch pipe, a DEP-driven change the highway department said added roughly $8,000 in culvert costs alone to a project now totaling around $30,000.