Plymouth Planning Board Unanimously Backs Earth Removal Bylaw Committee Consultant Search

PLYMOUTH -- May 13, 2026, Plymouth Planning Board unanimously authorizes Earth Removal Bylaw Committee to issue consultant RFQ. The board voted 6-0 Tuesday to allow the nine-member Earth Removal Bylaw Committee, funded by a Fall 2025 Town Meeting appropriation, to finalize and distribute a Request for Qualifications for an outside consultant to guide a comprehensive rewrite of the town's earth and gravel removal regulations. Committee Chair Michelle Christensen and member Hampton Watkins presented a scope calling for remote consultant participation in monthly coordination meetings, a technical and legal audit of the committee's draft bylaw work, and public engagement support including one community forum and three targeted stakeholder sessions for agriculture, developers, and environmental groups. Board members pushed back on scope language describing the revised bylaw as a "binary yes-no framework," with Chair Malcolm McGregor, Christopher Smith, and Frank Bennett all urging the committee to replace that framing with language emphasizing clarity while preserving regulatory discretion. McGregor also flagged the town's elderly housing bylaw as unenforceable under current fair housing law and raised the transfer of development rights bylaw as a parallel priority for the board's zoning modernization agenda. The RFQ is targeted for release by the end of May, with a consultant selection expected in August and work beginning in September, all in service of a December 2026 warrant submission deadline for Spring 2027 Town Meeting.