Conservation Commission Closes Two Old Orders, Releases Pool Mitigation Bond

NORTH ANDOVER — May 27, 2026 — North Andover Conservation Commission releases $2,500 bond after disputed blueberry shrub die-off, tightens future mitigation language. The commission voted unanimously at its May 27 meeting to issue a full certificate of compliance for 175 Olympic Lane and return the entire performance bond to the homeowner, despite the required 12 highbush blueberry shrubs having died after their two-season monitoring period and being replanted only this spring. A commissioner who had been "not inclined to let a penny out" ultimately joined the unanimous vote after a legal-process argument emerged that the order's language may not have authorized the commission to impose additional survival requirements. Following the vote, a senior commissioner warned colleagues that such outcomes "take the teeth out of the orders of conditions." Later the same evening the commission approved an order of conditions for 200 Bridal Path with revised condition 55 language requiring 75 percent shrub survivorship after a minimum of two full growing seasons and at the time of the certificate of compliance application — directly addressing the gap the Olympic Lane dispute exposed. The board also voted unanimously to close a notice of intent for a residential pool at 115 Candlestick Road, conditioning the eventual certificate of compliance on closure of an open 1978 order that required installation of a drainage pipe whose existence cannot be confirmed.