Cohasset Conservation Commission Issues Fines, Lifts Dock and Fill Enforcement Orders

COHASSET -- May 7, 2026, Cohasset Conservation Commission approves five permits and votes to fine a Howard Gleason Road property owner at a five-hour May 7 Zoom session. Chair Chris McIntyre and commissioners Tom Bell, Steve Magnell, and Kathy Berrigan, with two members absent, granted negative determinations to Justin Harlow for a prefabricated shed at 34 Riverview Drive and to Cohasset Golf Club for bunker and green restoration at 175 Lamberts Lane, the latter with an erosion-control condition and a variance for 50-foot buffer work. The commission amended the order of conditions at 100 Whitehead Road to authorize a 4-by-24-foot seasonal float with a new eelgrass consultation requirement tied to the Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research. The Cohasset Yacht Club was sent back to September 24 after the commission determined a 16-foot float connector at 99 Howard Gleason Road had pushed the system into shallow water, causing it to bottom out; Commodore Paula Curran agreed to remove the extension and restore the 2025 configuration. The commission voted 4-0 to impose daily fines starting at $100 on May 14, escalating to $300 per day, on the owner of 102 Howard Gleason Road for missing a professional survey deadline on unpermitted tree removal. Most dramatically, the commission lifted same-day enforcement orders at 25 Tad Lane after property owner Tanya Menchi's attorney, Thomas Patch, raised a potential agricultural exemption and jurisdictional concerns; a show cause hearing is scheduled for June 11.