Charlton Conservation Commission closes five hearings, continues multi-family housing case to May

CHARLTON — March 11, 2026 — Charlton Conservation Commission approved five actions and continued two hearings at its March 11 meeting. The commission closed public hearings and issued orders of conditions for a transmission line upgrade along Carpenter Hill Road replacing 60 wooden poles with steel structures along line U-173, and for a garage-to-home conversion at 186 Burlingame Road. It issued a negative determination allowing New England Power Company to pave just under 22,000 square feet of access routes around the Carpenter Hill substation, with 1,742 square feet within the wetland buffer. An amendment to add a controlled 11-inch winter drawdown to the management plan for Cranberry Meadow Lake was approved after a dam operator explained his manually controlled board-and-chain release system. The commission voted to approve minor footprint increases for three Sandersdale Road lots — Lot 1A, 2A, and 3A — over objections from member Mitch Dunn, who argued the developer may not satisfy the town's two-thirds contiguous upland zoning bylaw; Conservation Director Rose Conway maintained that "there is nothing on our regulations that keep us from approving this" and said enforcement falls to the building department.