Lexington Conservation Commission Presses Bedford Street Developer on Wetland Buffer Alternatives

LEXINGTON — April 28, 2026 — Lexington Conservation Commission sends 475 Bedford Street multifamily project back for impracticability analysis. The commission voted 4-0 to continue the hearing on Pulte Homes of New England's proposed 150-unit, three-building redevelopment of a Bedford Street sports facility after Chair Ruth Ladd and Commissioner Tom Whelan pressed the applicant team — Scott Morrison of VHB, attorney Ryan Douglas of Rubin and Rudman, and proponent Essek Petrie — to document specifically why reducing the footprints of one or more buildings to lessen encroachment into the 25-foot and 100-foot wetland buffer zones would be impracticable. The project features a net removal of roughly 57,000 square feet of impervious pavement and an 18,059-square-foot reduction in buffer-zone building area, but multiple public commenters, including Lisa Newton and Sandra Hackman of 55 for Lane, argued that improvements over existing conditions do not substitute for a true alternatives analysis. The commission also continued the Lexington High School flood-study hearing to May 19, issued an amended Order of Conditions and partial certificate of compliance for 560 Concord Avenue with a 5-0 vote, and scheduled site visits for May 12 at 5:30 p.m.