At a Dec. 26 joint meeting, the Town of Lakeville Planning Board, with members of the Board of Health, Conservation Commission and Open Space Committee, took the first public step toward drafting a town-led Open Space Residential Development (OSRD) option for the Rocky Woods parcel as an alternative to a developer's pending Chapter 40B comprehensive-permit application.

Planning Board members said the developer has put the 40B on hold until after the spring 2025 town meeting and is willing to negotiate an OSRD and a development agreement. The chair read the developer's concept numbers: the 40B concept was described as about 200 units on roughly 185 acres; the OSRD concept was presented as about 204 (possibly 214) units on roughly 308 acres, including 136 single-family lots and 68 duplex/55-plus units. Single-family lots in the OSRD concept were listed with a proposed minimum of 15,000 square feet, and the single-family portion was described as served by an on-site wastewater treatment plant while duplexes would use septic systems.

Committee members and residents raised technical and policy concerns. Board of Health members asked that the town not give credit in an OSRD for land that is not developable under a conventional plan and urged perc testing and clearer rules on when septic would be allowed instead of connecting to the treatment plant; a preliminary wastewater figure of about 49,000 gallons per day was mentioned in the meeting record. Conservation and Open Space members said the OSRD concept as drawn appeared to fragment conservation lands and recommended saving larger, contiguous blocks where feasible. The Conservation chair asked for up-to-date overlays showing wetlands, vernal pools and other ecological features.

The town's tribal historic-preservation representative warned that both the 40B and OSRD layouts risk harm to "intact ecosystems" and Native American sites along the Freetown Street corridor, and urged the board to overlay known cultural sites on plan maps. "This is only protecting an investor's pocket," the tribal representative said, arguing the town must preserve caves, outcrops and wetlands that cannot be replaced.

Residents asked for clearer information and faster access to technical studies. Mary Jean Libertore, who identified herself as living on Freetown Street, told the board she appreciated the conversation but said she opposed large development on the parcel: "I don't want any of it happening," she said, calling for transparency about what would happen if the town-built OSRD bid failed and the developer resumed the 40B process.

Planning and committee members also discussed the wider housing-policy context: 25% of units in a 40B project are typically designated as affordable and counted toward the town's Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI), which affects state "safe harbor" status. Speakers noted Lakeville is currently well below the threshold used to achieve safe harbor. Several members stressed that the more restrictive a local bylaw becomes, the more likely developers are to pursue 40B at the state level.

The groups asked the developer for current topographical and ecological overlays comparing the 40B and OSRD footprints and said the town should not invest staff and legal time drafting bylaw language until residents and committees see updated technical data. The Planning Board chair said the developer had been invited to future public discussions, and the board requested memos from Conservation, Open Space and Board of Health for its next review.

The Planning Board agreed to continue detailed consideration at its Jan. 9 meeting. No zoning change, bylaw or development agreement was adopted at the Dec. 26 meeting; the conversation was explicitly described as a fact-finding and public-input step. The session ended with a routine motion to adjourn that was seconded and approved.