Displaying items by tag:Wetland Protection Act

The Firm’s newest PowerPoint updating wetlands and water law for those who are involved with applications, plans, permits and enforcement by Conservation Commissions is available to readers of this site. Gregor McGregor presented it to the Massachusetts Society of Municipal Conservation Professionals in a luncheon webcast January 27, 2021.

Coastal as well as inland communities in Massachusetts increasingly are looking to their local wetland permitting laws and regulations as one place to help build climate change resilience.

We obtained for our client wind farm developer, after seven years of litigation, a decision from the Supreme Judicial Court, favorable in all respects, denying on the merits an appeal by citizen groups under the Wetland Protection Act and allowing our client’s wind turbine project (known as Hoosac Wind) to be built on Crum Hill in Munroe, MA and Bakke Mountain in Florida, MA (in the Berkshires).

Ten Local Citizen Group v. New England Wind, LLC. This ruling, concluding numerous public reviews, agency permits, adjudicatory hearings, and court litigation, cleared the way for the largest land based wind farm in Massachusetts, with 19 turbine, now producing 28.5 MW for Iberdrola Renewables.

An open-ended waiver of the state Wetlands Protection Act's twenty-one (21) day deadline for issuing a decision after the close of a public hearing is invalid when required as part of a Notice of Intent application package.