The Conservation Commission at its meeting Tuesday approved the notice of intent for a two-story medical office building at 28 Lumber Street after the applicant significantly revised its plan to curtail the scope of the project’s environmental impacts.

The building would be constructed on a 3.4-acre vacant lot close to the applicant, landscaping company New View, Inc. The applicant and Hopkinton Stone & Garden both are located at 32 Lumber Street. The parcel previously was an excavation pit and had been  a “gravel borrow area” in the 1970s, according to Scott Goddard, the applicant’s attorney.

Goddard said he made “some minor tweaks” to the invasive species management plan since the previous meeting. At the last meeting, he said the width of the parking area was reduced to curtail its environmental impact. Infiltration systems were moved to both sides of the building.

The original proposal would have displaced 13,000 cubic feet of floodplain area; the current amount is about half that size. More wetland replication area was added to the project in this iteration, Goddard said.

After performing a functions and values analysis, Goodard explained that the main function of the current portion of the wetland was “largely flood control.”

“We provided a restoration of those flood control features so that functionally, we were able to have a net improvement to the overall values and functions of that particular wetland,” he said.

Joe Orzel, the town’s peer review consultant, said he was satisfied with changes made to the invasive species management plan. He also agreed with Goddard that flood control was the primary function of the wetland.

“I think they will be improving some of the other functions with the plantings, including habitat function and maintaining flood control functions,” Orzel added.

Member Heather Burton asked what would happen when the soil is excavated from the replication areas. Goodard explained that the soil basically is gravel fill material that would be buried under the front portion of the site, which would be elevated and paved over.

The vote was 5-1 to approve. Burton recused herself because she was not a board member when this process started nearly two years ago, when Hopkinton Stone & Garden was the applicant. Member Janine LeBlanc voted against the proposal.

The Trails approved to amend lot release request

Vin Gately, owner of The Trails housing development, requested an amendment to the commission’s previous decision to release three lots for construction. He asked that the lot numbers be left to the builder’s discretion, citing buyer interest as the reason.

At the Jan. 7 meeting, Gately had requested to release three specific lots on Waterville Lane for development. A cease-and-desist order had been in place because of previous stormwater management violations.

Gately said the Hopkinton and Ashland conservation commissions each understood his application to be for the release of three specific lots.

“I had assumed, which was a mistake, that this would work exactly the way the first 10 units were released in July of 2024,” he explained.

That approval, he said, was with the understanding that the builder could change the units but not exceed the total number of units approved.

Gately said Ashland agreed to amend its decision to give him flexibility, and he hoped Hopkinton would do the same so that the decisions would mirror each other.

“We’re trying to respond to the market,” he said, noting that he would locate the units “based on sales and marketing.”

Chair Melissa Recos said she was fine with that arrangement because the building schedule, staging and erosion control measures were in place.

Said Recos: “We certainly want to see the project be constructed and things to move forward smoothly as far as getting these houses built and the project schedule moving along.”