Lichfield selectmen allow limited construction while requiring revised restoration plan and bond after wetlands clearing

Lichfield — The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to let Patriot Holdings continue limited site work at the Olsson/Lichfield Estates development while the town and the developer finalize a strengthened restoration plan and a restoration bond to address extensive tree clearing in a wetland buffer.

The decision followed a detailed conservation commission review and field survey that showed roughly 100–110 mature trees had been removed from a peninsula inside the 50‑ to 75‑foot buffer. Conservation Commission chair George Lavash told the board that the commission found the developer’s initial restoration plan — which proposed 24 pines around the perimeter — “insufficient” and criticized the developer for not self‑reporting the cutting. “I’m not happy that the fact that they did not self‑report the cutting of the trees,” Lavash said.

Representatives for the developer, including civil engineer Chad Brandon of Fieldstone Lane Consultants, said the team moved quickly after the town’s May notice and proposed perimeter plantings and signage as an initial mitigation step. “Without question, there is a significant area that was cut that wasn’t supposed to be,” Brandon said, and he told the board his firm intends to submit a revised plan with additional infill plantings and to consult the county forester.

Developer counsel Robert (“Bob”) Best said the owners have invested heavily in site cleanup and that the company was acting in good faith to fix the problem. Owner Dana Busher told the board, “we never had any intention… it was a complete mistake,” and pledged to restore the site.

Selectmen focused on two practical questions: how to ensure the restoration is adequate and how to protect the town’s leverage while avoiding unnecessary financial harm to the project. The board heard technical constraints about planting in buffer areas (heavy equipment can trigger dredge‑and‑fill permitting) and debated whether perimeter plantings alone would reproduce the pre‑cut forest structure.

In a motion by Selectman Mr. Perry, seconded by Selectwoman Miss Plansky, the board approved a conditional plan: allow continued site work for phase‑one site preparation and completion of the six buildings already on site but bar any new building deliveries until the restoration plan is approved and a restoration bond amount is set. The motion also requires weekly check‑ins by the town building inspector, ongoing coordination with the Conservation Commission, and a July 13 selectmen update after the developer presents a revised plan to the commission on July 9. The motion passed by roll call, 5–0.

The board and conservation commission pressed the developer to return with a restoration strategy that addresses interior replanting and understory — not only perimeter pines — and discussed requiring a performance bond sized to actual remediation costs. The developer said the posted bond for the project is in place; participants discussed that the bond currently reported by the developer was $675,000 but asked staff to calculate a remediation bond based on an independent estimate of restoration costs.

Next steps: Fieldstone Lane Consultants will submit a revised restoration plan to the Conservation Commission for its July 9 meeting and to the board for its July 13 meeting. The board’s conditions keep construction progress to the existing phase while holding certificates of occupancy until restoration obligations and a bond are agreed. Weekly inspections and frequent communications with town staff and the commission were ordered to monitor progress.

What was not decided: the board did not set a final dollar amount for a restoration bond at the meeting; it directed staff and the commission to work with the developer and to return with a recommended bond figure before the July 13 update.