Dighton Conservation Commission Approves Three Wetland Permits at May Meeting

DIGHTON -- May 21, 2026, Dighton Conservation Commission closes the book on the Strawberry Fields housing fight after a court rules against the developer. Chairman Jim Digits announced at the May 21 meeting that a court had sided with the commission, ending a more than six-year battle over a proposed 100-plus-home development on Somerset Avenue that the commission had rejected, only to be overruled by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The commission approved three new Notices of Intent, for Long Built Homes Hunter's Hill LLC at 0 Clubhouse Drive, Heritage Realty at 2161 Wheeler Street, and Massachusetts Electric Company at 0 Chestnut Street, all unanimously. Three other applications, including the Zeneca/Muddy Cove Pond pond-level project and two resource area delineations, were continued to June 18. The commission also confronted an escalating enforcement situation at 418 Hart Street, where neighbor Jason Machado reported in an email read into the record that more than 20 truckloads of loam had been delivered to the subject property since the last meeting, raising the grade and increasing drainage onto his land. The commission voted unanimously to decline a $1,350,000 right-of-first-refusal offer under Chapter 61A for property at Zero Williams Street, and accepted Jason Lawrence of Old Somerset Avenue as an associate member pending Select Board confirmation.