CPC reviews three FY27 project requests, sets January votes

SUDBURY -- December 10, 2025, Sudbury CPC hears nearly $1.7 million in FY27 project requests ahead of January votes. The Community Preservation Committee on Dec. 10 took up a $49,800 Hop Brook Protection Association request for continued water chestnut treatment, a $270,000 application for accessible connections to the Mass Central Rail Trail and a contested $1,398,000 plan for a paved driveway and 69-space parking lot at Parkinson Field. Planning Development Assistant Marcia Rasmussen said an easement negotiation with abutter Ti-SALES, scheduled for the following Friday, is critical to the Parkinson design because the existing driveway's eight-foot lanes are too narrow for fire apparatus to pass a stopped car. Member Dan Carty pressed back on the parking-lot-heavy approach to rail trail access: "The idea was that we're going to get more people on bikes from cars." Hop Brook board member Glenn Pransky said preliminary consultant findings point to phosphorus discharge from Marlborough's Hager Pond as "the driver of all of your overgrowth problems." Coordinator Ryan Poteat noted warrant articles are due Jan. 30, with recommendation votes scheduled across three January meetings; Assistant Town Manager Victor Garofalo separately announced Parks and Recreation Director Dennis Mannion's departure the prior Friday.