Marshfield ZBA Upholds Airport Buffer Violation, Orders Commission to Return with Site Plan

MARSHFIELD -- June 30, 2026, Marshfield's Zoning Board of Appeals upheld a building commissioner's violation against the Marshfield Airport Commission for illegally clearing a residential vegetative buffer at the town's airport. The board voted 4-0, with one abstention, to sustain Building Commissioner Andrew's April 27 notice of violation against the commission, which had appealed the ruling; the commission indicated it would withdraw the appeal, leaving the violation on record. The clearing, carried out by airport management firm Shoreline Aviation using a town-owned Marshmaster machine, removed a natural screening buffer required by a 2014 ZBA site plan approval along Plymouth Avenue, allowing abutting neighbors to see runway lights for the first time. "Phragmites is not an emergency," member Eric Murphy said in rejecting the commission's justification for the timing of the work. The commission must return July 28 with a revised site plan, while the approximately $80,000 federal Vegetation Management Plan will be updated in roughly two years to align with whatever new plan the ZBA approves. The board also unanimously approved a special permit and site plan for a four-foot by 24-foot walking bridge over a stone dike at the James P. Harrington Foundation's 76 Ferry Hill Road conservation property.