Millis planning board orders stop-work action and requires amendment after unpermitted work at 1073 Main Street solar project

The Millis Planning Board on Tuesday directed the developer of a special-permit solar canopy at 1073 Main Street to file for a special-permit amendment and signaled it will ask the building commissioner to issue a stop‑work order after town officials discovered construction had begun without required pre-construction steps and outstanding peer review work.

Chair Richard Nichols said the original special permit was issued in February 2022. Town staff learned in late July that footings had been poured before required pre-conference meetings with the Department of Public Works and before the town’s peer-review engineer had reviewed a finalized set of drawings and provided a scope and fee. Nichols and staff described the current situation as work that had progressed beyond the scope shown on the endorsed drawings, noting the revised plans submitted to the building department included substantially larger footings and a different footing layout.

NextGrid representatives at…