Lenox Conservation Commission Orders Revised Draft of Long-Stalled Plastail Road Conservation Restriction

LENOX — March 24, 2026 — Lenox Conservation Commission sends long-stalled Plastail Road conservation restriction back for redrafting over parking dispute. The commission met March 24 and devoted its longest discussion to a conservation restriction more than 11 years in the making for the Laurel Hill Association's Loveless property off Plastail Road, which abuts nearly 800 acres of conserved land at a scenic gateway to Stockbridge. Representatives from Laurel Hill — including board member Kate Fletcher and board member Bruce Blair — argued the organization's vision is strictly an ecological preserve, pushing to limit any parking area to 600 square feet and rejecting a proposed 3,000-square-foot emergency provision, while commission members argued the permanent nature of conservation restrictions requires preserving flexibility for unforeseen future needs. "We've been in the uncomfortable position to have to enforce conservation restrictions against landowners because at the time of drafting, they were overly restrictive," one commission member said. The commission also unanimously approved a notice of intent for 6 Brookside Lane with a special condition requiring a 12-inch crushed-stone footing on a failing retaining wall adjacent to a bordering vegetated wetland, and unanimously accepted a native-species replanting plan for a Battlestick Mountain Road pond.