Cohasset Commission Approves Water Main Loop Through Wetlands, Continues Home Rebuild

COHASSET — December 18, 2025 — Cohasset Conservation Commission votes unanimously on water main, certificates, and flags insurance tree-removal threat. The five-member board on December 18 approved a 5-0 order of conditions and a 5-0 buffer-zone variance for the town's long-planned water main loop at 94 Black Horse Lane, which crosses both isolated and bordering vegetated wetlands and involves an estimated 860 square feet of wetland alteration; conditions require a wetland scientist to oversee the work from excavation through a three-year restoration period with a 75 percent plant-survival benchmark. The commission also voted 5-0 to issue a stormwater certificate of compliance for 1 Pleasant Street and a second 5-0 certificate for the associated order of conditions, contingent on confirmation and replacement of what a Google Lens search during the meeting identified as a probable honey locust — an invasive species — in the 100-foot wetland buffer. A proposed home rebuild at 453 Beachwood Street was continued to January 8, 2026, after the DEP file number failed to arrive and the commission required a six-inch-caliper tree inventory and native planting plan. Conservation Agent Charlotte Pechtel warned commissioners that three insurance-company-driven requests to remove healthy buffer-zone trees had arrived in rapid succession with no written documentation, calling it "a huge thing against wetlands protection" and saying she intends to contact the state Division of Insurance to determine what authority carriers actually hold.