PLYMOUTH — Oct. 17, 2026 — Plymouth Town Meeting voted 101–44–1 on Saturday to require a special permit for unified complexes, clusters of commercial buildings on a single lot, after petitioners said the 2022 bylaw let a developer clear required buffers on Hedges Pond Road. The Planning Board chair urged a no vote, and the moderator kept two other citizen petitions from reaching a vote.
The Full Story
Article 24, a citizen petition filed by Brian Harrington and others, amends Section 203-1.D of the zoning bylaw. As printed in the warrant, it requires a special permit for more than one principal building on a lot in the LI, AP, MC, HC, MOD and CVED districts, makes those complexes subject to Section 203-2’s natural features provisions and applies exterior yard, setback, buffer and frontage requirements to the complex lot as a whole. Members closed debate 121–24–0 before the main vote. Like other bylaw changes, the amendment must be submitted to the state attorney general’s office, which has 90 days to review it.
How the motion reached the floor
Supplement I to the Advisory & Finance Committee’s report listed Article 24 as No Motion – No Action and included the Planning Board’s Sept. 23 vote of 0–4 against it. Town Moderator F. Steven Triffletti said he had ruled the petitioners’ preferred version, which named the Planning Board as the special permit granting authority, outside the scope of the signed petition, and that they returned to the warrant text earlier in the week. He said the committee approved the main motion that morning; it reported a 10–0 recommendation.
Michelle Christensen, Precinct 9 vice chair and chair of the Earth Removal Bylaw Committee, said a developer on a Hedges Pond Road lot in Cedarville was able to violate excavation and vegetation setbacks along the lot lines.
Richard Serkey, Precinct 2, a member of the same committee, said the petitioners were forced back to the warrant text after the moderator ruled their motion out of order and that the result was not a compromise.
Planning Board Chair Steven Bolotin said the board unanimously opposed the article, that the Hedges Pond Road property had been treated as a special permit and that the change adds red tape.
And I can tell you as the chair of the planning board, there are no unified complex applications presently before us, and we will not entertain any until after spring town meeting.
— Steven Bolotin, Planning Board Chair 4:04:27
Charlie Bletzer, Precinct 5, said residential taxpayers carry most of the budget and feared the change would hurt businesses looking to come to Plymouth. Donald Williams, Precinct 8, said iron in the sand helps keep phosphorus out of the aquifer and ponds. Steve Lydon, Precinct 17, said the building inspector found no violations at the site.
Two petitions never reached a vote
The moderator ruled out of order Article 25, a petition by Albert DiNardo, Precinct 17, that would have required a separate Town Meeting vote before surplus airport revenue could be spent. He cited two sections of Chapter 44 of the General Laws, Department of Revenue guidelines and a pending Superior Court case the Plymouth Airport Commission filed against the town, saying an amended preliminary injunction issued in May bars the town from interfering with airport accounting services.
DiNardo, on a point of order, said the charter requires that an appeal of a ruling be allowed and decided by a two-thirds vote. The moderator answered that his ruling was substantive, not procedural, and so not appealable.
The ruling is substantive. I’m saying to you, it is illegal to go forward on this article because of the court order.
— Steven Triffletti, Town Moderator 5:30:45
Bill Abbott, who said he had chaired two charter commissions, told the moderator the Attorney General, not the moderator, should judge legality, and later said he was appealing. Joel Coffin, Precinct 10, said members should get the two-thirds vote. No appeal vote was taken.
Article 26, to replace the town’s five steering committees with seven independent ones, met the same end. The moderator said its appointment process conflicts with the charter. A member then requested a two-thirds appeal vote, which was not held.
