Stoughton Planning Board Approves Landscape Company Building, Pursues Tree Fine After Unpermitted Clear-Cutting

STOUGHTON -- June 11, 2026, Stoughton Planning Board opened a contentious new hearing over the unpermitted clearing of roughly three and a half acres on Turnpike Street while also approving a landscape company's 9,745-square-foot mixed-use office building on Washington Street. Town Planner Bill Roth told the board that aerial imagery analysis, aided by an AI tool and the town's NearMap photography service, estimated that between 350 and 450 trees, mostly evergreens, were removed from the five-acre Turnpike Street parcel owned by Charles Dow and Associates Inc. without the required special permit or stormwater permit, in direct violation of an existing Conservation Commission order of conditions. Engineer Steve Giosa of SciTech Engineering, representing the applicant, proposed a stabilization and stormwater detention plan and acknowledged that on-site planting mitigation was required, while the board debated whether a payment into a proposed town tree-replanting revolving account, still pending town meeting approval, should also be required. Neighbor Howard Meiselman of Seven Cabot Place told the board the applicant's contractor had encroached on his condominium association's property without a valid easement, finished the work after being told to stop, and left the land unrestored, prompting the association to spend thousands of dollars on Jersey barriers. The board continued the Turnpike Street matter to July 16, pending Conservation Commission action, and unanimously approved the Exterior Escapes site plan and digital sign permit for 1823 Washington Street.