Newburyport Conservation Commission Delays Plum Island Deck Ruling to March 3

NEWBURYPORT -- February 3, 2026, Newburyport's Conservation Commission postponed a decision on a contested Plum Island coastal project to March 3, citing unresolved legal questions and a quorum shortage. The commission voted 5-0 Tuesday to continue the public hearing on a Notice of Intent for 5 Basin Street, where property owner Cindy Singer seeks to replace a deck over a stone revetment, add a new deck to the house, install helical piles, rebuild the revetment, and add a dock. Environmental consultant Tom Hughes and land-use attorney Lisa Mead presented a revised regulatory analysis arguing the waterside deck qualifies as a replacement under the local wetlands ordinance and need not be elevated to FEMA flood-zone standards, a reading commission member Julia Godferson disputed, saying "when you take something down and put something new up in its place, even if it's replacing what was there before, that's a new structure." Mead offered a written statutory-construction memo by the following Tuesday. A separate question, whether a proposed garage bathroom addition would constitute a substantial improvement to a structure assessed at $15,100, remained unresolved, with Godferson calling it "a pretty big question" that the commission should answer before issuing any order of conditions. The commission also learned it still lacks a city solicitor's opinion, the firm retained in November not yet having been replaced.