Bellingham Planning Board Orders Dual Decisions Drafted for 129-Unit Townhouse Project

BELLINGHAM -- July 17, 2025, Bellingham Planning Board moves toward final ruling on 129-unit Prospect Hill Village townhouse project. The board voted unanimously at its July 17 meeting to continue the long-running Prospect Hill Village application to August 14 and directed Town Planner Rob Ballou to draft both an approval and a denial decision for that session, with a hard decision deadline of August 31. An unresolved disagreement between the applicant and the town DPW over the condition of the Dutri Road sewer pump station, which has accumulated roughly $115,000 in patchwork repairs since the town took it over around 2020, drew pointed questions from newly seated member Marty Roach. A Franklin resident, identified as Timowski, argued in public comment that the project remains approximately 15 units over the maximum allowed density once riverfront area subject to the Wetlands Protection Act is excluded from the calculation. Separately, the board continued two Hartford Avenue commercial proposals, a retail building and a bank with drive-through, to October 9, with the decision deadline pushed to November 30, after the fire chief raised ladder-truck access concerns and multiple neighbors described the Hartford Avenue and Cedar Hill Road corridor as already among the town's most dangerous stretches of road.