Littleton Planning Board Continues Tender Crop Farm Hearing, Demands More Detail

LITTLETON — June 5, 2025 — Littleton Planning Board sends Tender Crop Farm back to the drawing board on proposed Gary's Farm Stand redevelopment. The board opened a public hearing June 5 on a site plan and aquifer protection special permit application for 600 Great Road, where prospective buyer Matthew Kozowski and his Tender Crop Farm operation plan to add a 9,240-square-foot building addition to the existing 4,032-square-foot retail structure, install 71 marked parking spaces, replace three deteriorated greenhouses with one new greenhouse, and add a rear loading dock accessed from Lawrence Street. Members raised concerns on multiple fronts: absent lighting and signage plans, a lack of traffic analysis, unresolved standing-water drainage problems on the lot, and deep skepticism that a single greenhouse on a 2.9-acre parcel — roughly half covered by building and pavement, with a septic leach field in the primary open field — could credibly satisfy the Dover Amendment's requirement that 25 percent of farm stand sales derive from crops grown on the property. Town Counsel Tom Harrington told the board the building inspector, not the Planning Board, makes the final agricultural-use determination. Resident Margaret Soto, the site's closest abutter for 40 years, cited predawn dumpster service and delivery-truck noise; resident Frank Matheson argued the site's remaining open land makes the 25 percent threshold mathematically impossible. The hearing was continued unanimously to July 10 at 8:10 p.m. The board also voted unanimously to approve a site plan for Littleton Electric Light and Water's proposed four-container lithium-ion battery storage installation at the former Parley Lumber Mill site on Mill Road, with conditions covering lighting, noise documentation, and a fire department coordination letter.