Conservation Commission Approves Blackstone Street Lots, Continues Road and Village Hearings

BELLINGHAM -- May 14, 2025, Bellingham Conservation Commission votes 6-1 to approve two contested Blackstone Street house lots while imposing strict wetland conditions. At the commission's sole May meeting, the board closed hearings on ANR Lots 1 and 2 on Blackstone Street and issued orders of conditions over applicant Lou Petrosi's objections, after Petrosi left the meeting room and requested the hearings be closed rather than continued. Conditions include a pre-construction tree count of all trees 10 inches in diameter or greater within the area of work, the erosion control line as the formal limit of disturbance, permanent wetland boundary markers, fertilizer restrictions, and a five-foot reduction in front setback to reduce encroachment on a recently certified vernal pool's 100-foot buffer zone. A separate new hearing on the same developer's proposal to construct a 22-foot paved road through 1,900 linear feet of undeveloped Blackstone Street, serving 12 lots on a 214-acre parcel, was continued to June 11 pending peer review, with the commission citing the certified vernal pool and a failed historic culvert as key unresolved concerns. The commission also continued the 129-unit Prospect Hill Village townhouse hearing to June 11 after BSC Group suspended peer review upon exhausting its initial funding scope, with the applicant calling BSC's first report "complete nonsense."