Select Board — December 16, 2024

At the Hopkinton Select Board meeting on December 16, 2024, a proposal was presented to subdivide a property on North Shore Drive into 11 homes. The road is currently a Class VI road — unimproved and not maintained by the town. Moving this development forward would require converting it to a Class V road, which means the town would ultimately accept responsibility for maintaining it. That's an infrastructure cost that would fall on all Hopkinton taxpayers, not just the developer. The board directed the applicants to meet with the Planning Director and Public Works Director — next steps in a process that will eventually come back before both the Planning Board and Select Board.

Three neighboring property owners — Katherine Mitchell, Dick McIntire, and Mike Martin — attended specifically to oppose the development. Their concerns were substantive: documented wetlands, wildlife habitat identified in the town's own Natural Resource Inventory, conservation values, and the effects of dense settlement in an area that has remained undeveloped. After each speaker finished, the board said nothing. No acknowledgment of the concerns raised, no commitment to factor environmental issues into future deliberations, no follow-up questions. Residents took time to appear on the record, and the record reflects that the board did not engage with a single point they made.

It's also worth noting that the public forum — typically a general comment period — was used almost exclusively to address the North Shore Drive development. That item was not listed on the agenda as a public comment opportunity. Residents who might have wanted to weigh in, on either side, had no clear advance notice that this was the meeting to attend for that purpose.

On a separate but significant issue: the Budget Committee has flagged concerns about the cumulative tax impact of bonds proposed for 2025, with additional bonds anticipated in 2026 and 2027. Bond hearings are scheduled for February 10. No detailed public analysis of what these bonds would mean for Hopkinton property tax bills has been presented yet. If you own property in Hopkinton, that February 10 hearing is one to put on your calendar now.