Conservation Commission issues cease-and-desist at car wash, closes DNRT hearing

Conservation · Meeting of January 27, 2026

Dartmouth Conservation Commission voted unanimously seven times in 36 minutes, closing a long-running hearing and issuing a cease-and-desist enforcement order. The commission approved an Order of Conditions for the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust's site improvement project at 293 Flag Swamp Road, a hearing open since November that stalled over whether the project qualified as new development under stricter stormwater standards; Conservation Agent Eduardo Fortes said DPW Engineering had signed off on the final plan dated January 8, 2026, and the order included a modified condition requiring a floating boom with a weighted silt curtain during any overwater work. The commission also authorized a cease-and-desist enforcement order at 271 State Road, where unauthorized trenching and cutting near a riverfront bank at a car wash site had already drawn shutdown orders from multiple town departments.

An after-the-fact Notice of Intent from Steven Gaudenico at 566 State Road, a second wetlands violation by the same applicant, was continued to February 10 with a commission warning, read into the record by Chair Michael Kehoe, that "there will be no further continuation."

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Source: the Conservation meeting of January 27, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.