Charlton Commission Continues Contested 33-Unit Housing NOI to February

CHARLTON — January 14, 2026 — Charlton Conservation Commission continued a scaled-back 33-unit multifamily housing proposal at 35 North Main Street to February 11 and ratified two enforcement orders against a Worcester Road property owner whose unpermitted six-acre clearing sent sediment roughly 100 feet into a bordering vegetated wetland. Conservation/Stormwater Director Rose Conway presented video footage from a January 6 site inspection showing stormwater runoff flowing from unstabilized slopes, telling the board the property owner had cleared six acres without permits, without erosion controls, and without a stormwater management plan; she issued three fines now being contested in Dudley District Court and said EPA had already inspected the site. The 35 North Main Street project, originally proposed at 40 units, drew renewed scrutiny over retaining walls up to 20 feet tall and infiltration trenches placed within feet of the wetland boundary on Olga Lane; a neighbor told the board the project is "really a lot of wetlands" and "crammed" at that end of the site. The commission also withdrew a long-dormant farmer's wall NOI at 80 Richardson Corner Road after the applicant stopped communicating, closed hearings for projects at 61 T Hall Road and 101 North Sturbridge Road, and unanimously approved a hunting policy for town-owned land permitting hunting subject to state regulations, with the sole restriction being no hunting at the town farm.