As neighbors who share forests, wildlife habitat and trail connections, we’re asking Hopkinton residents to help ensure that commitments made during the approval of the Frankland Road solar project are honored.

In 2020, Seaboard Solar, the original owner of the Frankland Road solar project, committed to protect designated open space as part of a Hopkinton Planning Board special permit (recorded in the Southern Middlesex Registry of Deeds, No. 80147). The protected land included acreage in Hopkinton and approximately 1.8 acres in Ashland containing a significant portion of the Hopkinton-Ashland trail system.

In 2022, Agilitas Energy acquired the project and became the successor owner. The company has since maintained the Ashland parcel is “not available” and “outside the scope of the land donation.” However, the parcel was specifically identified as protected open space in the special permit and formed part of the basis on which the solar project received approval.

The permit states that the designated open-space land “shall be conveyed” through donation or conservation restriction. As successor owner, Agilitas inherited both the benefits and responsibilities associated with that approval. The Hopkinton Planning Board retains the authority to enforce the permit conditions and ensure the land is protected as originally intended.

Ashland officials were not informed that the Ashland parcel would be excluded from protection and placed on the market. Ashland’s town manager, Select Board, Planning Board, Conservation Commission and Open Space & Recreation Committee all have expressed support for preserving the parcel as originally intended, as has Hopkinton’s Open Space Preservation Commission.

While the parcel lies within Ashland, its value extends beyond town boundaries. It provides wildlife habitat, forested open space and an important connection within the Hopkinton-Ashland trail network used and enjoyed by residents of both communities.

If permit conditions can be disregarded after a project is approved, public trust in the permitting process is undermined. Residents who value conservation, public trails and the integrity of local land-use decisions should urge the Hopkinton Planning Board (planningboardchair@hopkintonma.gov) and Christopher McWhite, the director of municipal inspections (townhall@hopkintonma.gov), to enforce the Frankland Road solar project’s special permit as written.

Please take a moment to email them and ask that the Frankland Road solar project’s special permit be enforced as written and that its open-space commitments be honored.

— Concerned residents of Hopkinton and Ashland: Tony Quattrone, Susan Thorne, Kai Wittpennig, John DeGozzaldi, Jin Zhao, Bob Ionta, David and Nancy Rosenblum, Matt Winkler, Laura Whalen and Brian Forestal

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