Burlington Conservation Commission Continues Two Wetland Hearings to April

BURLINGTON -- March 26, 2026, Burlington Conservation Commission continues two wetland hearings as riverfront classification dispute slows A Street case. The commission voted 6-0 at its March 26 meeting to continue the Notice of Intent for 11 Sears Street, a residential demolition and rebuild within the buffer zone to bordering vegetated wetland, to April 9, pending a landscaping plan, a paver construction detail, and written confirmation that the new basement floor will comply with Burlington's groundwater separation bylaw. A second 6-0 vote continued the contested application for 7 A Street, where American Maplewood Properties, LLC seeks approval for commercial material storage on a lot where the entire site lies within the Vine Brook riverfront area and a FEMA flood zone, to April 23. Attorney Richard "Chip" Nylen argued that the site qualifies as previously degraded as of 1996 under state wetlands regulations, while Conservation Administrator Eileen Coleman and Chair Larry Cohen cited aerial photographs showing substantial revegetation over the past 25 to 30 years and DEP's position that vegetation implies topsoil. Cohen proposed treating part of the site as redevelopment and part as new development to avoid costly soil surveys, stating "the site was left to partially revegetate" over three decades and that earlier degraded status cannot simply be reclaimed for commercial use.