Do you care about protecting our shared forests, wildlife habitat, and trail system—and ensuring that commitments made to our communities are kept? If so, now is the time to speak up.

As neighbors in Ashland and Hopkinton, we are asking residents of both towns to help ensure that commitments made during the approval of the Frankland Road solar project are honored.

In 2020, Seaboard Solar, the original owner of the Frankland Road solar project, committed to protect designated open space as part of a special permit issued by the Hopkinton Planning Board (recorded in the Southern Middlesex Registry of Deeds #80147). The protected land included approximately 1.8 acres in Ashland containing a significant portion of the Hopkinton-Ashland trail system and an important connection for residents who use and enjoy this area.

In 2022, Agilitas Energy acquired the project and became the successor owner. The company has since maintained that the Ashland parcel is "not available" as open space and "outside the scope of the land donation." However, the parcel was specifically identified as protected open space in the special permit and formed part of the basis on which the solar project received approval.

As successor owner, Agilitas inherited both the benefits and responsibilities associated with that permit. The permit states that the designated open-space land "shall be conveyed" through donation or conservation restriction. The Hopkinton Planning Board and Building Commissioner retain the authority to enforce those conditions and ensure the land is protected as originally intended.

Ashland officials were not informed that the Ashland parcel would be excluded from protection and placed on the market. Ashland's Town Manager, Select Board, Planning Board, Conservation Commission, and Open Space & Recreation Committee have all expressed support for preserving the parcel as open space conservation land. The Hopkinton Open Space Preservation Commission has also expressed support for preserving the land.

While located in Ashland, this parcel provides benefits that extend beyond town boundaries. It contains valuable wildlife habitat, forested open space, and an important link in the trail network shared by residents of both Ashland and Hopkinton. Preserving this land was part of the original commitment associated with approval of the solar project.

If permit conditions can be disregarded after a project is approved, public trust in the permitting process is undermined. Residents who value conservation, public trails, and the integrity of local land-use decisions should urge the Hopkinton Planning Board ([email protected]) and Building Commissioner Christopher McWhite ([email protected]) to enforce the Frankland Road solar project's special permit as written, copying the Ashland Select Board ([email protected]).

Please take a moment to email them and ask that open-space commitments made as part of the solar project's approval be honored and enforced.

Concerned residents of Hopkinton and Ashland – Tony Quattrone, Susan Thorne, David & Nancy Rosenblum, Kai Wittpennig, John DeGozzaldi, Jin Zhao, Bob Ionta, Matt Winkler, Brian Forestal.