Though empowered, Greenfield’s Conservation Commission is choosing not to force the applicant for a Stone Farm Lane development to pay for independent consultants. This isn’t oversight — it’s negligence. The applicant’s Notice of Intent to build 22 houses on Stone Farm Lane included reports from their own hand-picked biological surveyor and environmental consultant. No independent peer reviews. No neutral third parties. Both hired directly by the applicant who is seeking the win.
Would we let a corporation write its own environmental laws? Or a student grade their own final exam? Of course not. Yet here we are, allowing an applicant to control the very process that the commission is supposed to keep honest. Notice of Intent applications aren’t just paperwork — they are our safeguard for protecting wetlands, wildlife, and the public interest. Without true independence, they safeguard only the applicant as beneficiary.
The commission’s role is to protect Greenfield’s natural resources, not to rubber-stamp applications with built-in conflicts of interest. Allowing this practice undermines public trust and opens the door for biased findings to pass as fact. The people of Greenfield deserve a fair, transparent process; one that puts the public interest first. Anything less isn’t just bad governance. It’s complicity. Conservation Commission do your job, protect the public interest, not a developer’s.
Kristyn Bates, Sunrise Neighborhood Coalition
Greenfield