Bellingham Conservation Commission Opens Eight Toll Northeast Lot Hearings, Issues Bruce Road Orders

BELLINGHAM -- March 25, 2026, Bellingham Conservation Commission opens eight new lot hearings for Toll Northeast's Red Mill on the Charles subdivision and issues dual orders for a Bruce Road septic case. The commission opened Notices of Intent for Lots 8 through 15 at the Mechanic Street and Mill Street development, Map 31, Lot 13-1, where Toll Northeast plans single-family homes within the 100-foot buffer zone to bordering vegetated wetlands along an unnamed perennial stream. Brian Madden of LEC Environmental Consultants walked the board through each lot's maximum composite build-out footprint, noting 34 additional lot filings remain and that roughly 38 acres will be conveyed to the Conservation Commission as permanent open space under the subdivision-wide order. Members flagged conditions they expect to impose lot by lot, including fertilizer and insecticide restrictions and four-foot conservation boundary markers with no-disturbance signage, and continued all eight hearings to April 22 pending resolution of a subdivision-wide peer review and guidance from Town Counsel on whether lots can be opened and closed as groups. Separately, the commission issued an order of conditions and an enforcement order for 77 Bruce Road, where after-the-fact clearing of approximately 2,400 square feet of riverfront area in 2018 triggered a restoration requirement of 2,800 square feet of native plantings as a condition of the failed septic permit.