Stockbridge Conservation Commission Approves Brookside Lane Retaining Wall, Schedules Three Site Visits

STOCKBRIDGE -- March 24, 2026, Stockbridge Conservation Commission approves one Notice of Intent and schedules three site visits while a conservation restriction dispute enters its twelfth year. The Commission unanimously approved a Notice of Intent for 6 Brookside Lane, authorizing the renovation of a covered front porch into a mudroom and the reconstruction of a failing boulder retaining wall at the edge of a vegetated wetland, conditioned on a 12-inch crushed-stone footing and a bar on equipment entering the wetland from below, for property owners John and Diana Glendanese. Three additional applications, a screen porch at 10A Lake Drive, a timber-frame house replacement at 8 Shamrock Street, and a detached accessory dwelling unit on Goodwood Street for applicant Daniel Shapira, were continued to site visits set for March 27. The longest discussion of the evening focused on a conservation restriction for a Laurel Hill Association parcel on Plastail Road, a 43-acre property acquired in 2014 with Community Preservation Act funds; Laurel Hill board members Kate Fletcher and Bruce Blair clashed with Stockbridge Land Trust representative Doug Goody over parking provisions, with Goody arguing the draft's 600-square-foot limit is too restrictive given the range of permitted uses, and Laurel Hill insisting the parcel is intended as an ecological preserve. The Commission directed Laurel Hill to delete permitted uses inconsistent with that vision and return with a revised draft.