Douglas Planning Board Accepts Withdrawal of Eastland Flexible Development Permit

DOUGLAS — February 11, 2026 — Douglas Planning Board accepts withdrawal of Eastland Partners flexible development permit and signals resistance to key access waiver. The board voted unanimously Wednesday to accept the withdrawal without prejudice of special permit SP-251203 for a proposed 10-lot flexible development at Southwest Main Street, Map 212, Parcel 24, after town counsel advised that the applicant's redesigned eight-lot conventional plan required re-advertising and a new public hearing. Engineer Travis Brown of Turning Point Engineering presented the revised concept — 90,000-square-foot lots, the same road alignment, and private septic and well for each lot — but acknowledged the project cannot proceed without a waiver of the town's 60-foot minimum right-of-way requirement for a 40-foot existing access strip. In informal discussion, at least two members were flatly opposed; Member Mike Greco said, "I'm not going to wiggle at all on the waiver — if we don't go by what we put in the books, just throw them away." The board also voted unanimously to approve long-delayed amendments to its subdivision rules and regulations, requiring stormwater basins on dedicated town-accessible parcels and setting concrete sidewalk thickness at four inches with fiber reinforcement, six inches at driveways.