Whitman Conservation Commission Drafts First Wetlands Fee and Fine Schedule

WHITMAN -- January 6, 2026, Whitman Conservation Commission moves toward its first formal wetlands fee and fine schedule. At the January 6 session, members reviewed filing fee structures from Hanson and East Bridgewater, where a residential Notice of Intent runs $75 and a commercial filing runs $100, and discussed adopting a hybrid model. The commission debated whether to embed the fee schedule in the bylaw text or maintain it as a separate, annually reviewed document, noting that zoning fees are currently written directly into the town bylaws. On fines, members discussed per-day penalties of up to $300 for ongoing construction violations and a per-tree escalating fine structure for unauthorized tree removal in wetlands. The commission also reported it missed the window for a fiscal year 2026 Hobart Dam repair grant and is now targeting a fiscal year 2027 application, with a prior dam overflow that damaged a privately owned culvert on South Avenue cited as a new safety angle to add to the grant.