Newburyport Conservation Commission Issues Permits for Basin Street, American Yacht Club Projects

NEWBURYPORT -- April 7, 2026, Newburyport Conservation Commission issues two waterfront permits and continues two others at its April 7 meeting. The seven-member commission voted unanimously to issue orders of conditions for 5 Basin Street, a coastal deck and revetment reconstruction on Plum Island, and for 115 Water Street Rear, the American Yacht Club pile-replacement project using greenheart timber with a bubble curtain for Atlantic sturgeon protection. The Basin Street hearing, more than a year in the making, was resolved only after the applicant's consultant produced a withdrawal letter on the spot removing a proposed garage bathroom from the application; Member Julie Godferson said conditioning a permit on a future unresolved element was "just completely not the right" approach and she "couldn't vote for that." A fuel-tank installation at 51 Water Street Rear marina, the site of a fuel release last fall, also received a unanimous permit, but only after commissioners required an updated Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure plan be submitted before construction begins, citing a 2010 plan referencing a now-defunct contractor and evidence that the plan's procedures had not been followed after the fall spill. A hearing for 82 Prince Street was continued to April 21 after the applicants failed to appear and filed a revised document the morning of the meeting.