Foxborough Conservation Commission Accepts Oak Street Land Transfer for Butterfly Habitat

FOXBOROUGH -- December 15, 2025, Foxborough Conservation Commission unanimously accepted a 30-acre Article 97 land transfer tied to a stalled butterfly habitat permit and a new water treatment plant. The commission voted to accept map 47, lot 87 on Oak Street from the town, completing an action authorized at the May 2021 town meeting under articles 20 and 21. DPW Director Chris Galla said the transfer satisfies a Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife conservation management permit requirement connected to a new PFAS water treatment plant on Lamson Road, slated for construction as early as July 2026. The permit requires 13.4 acres of managed habitat for the frosted elfin butterfly, a listed species; initial tree clearing will be bundled with plant construction. The commission also opened a public hearing on a nine-building contractor bay complex proposed by Bay Colony Group at 138 Washington Street, which would alter roughly 69,104 square feet of wetland buffer, and continued that hearing to January 12 pending engineering review. A minor update to the commission's 2021 hazardous tree policy, adding the ISA's Tree Risk Assessment Qualification as an accepted arborist credential, was approved unanimously.