Dover Planning Board Re-endorses Dedham Street Plan, Plots Housing Outreach Push

DOVER -- May 19, 2026, Dover Planning Board re-endorses 129 Dedham Street plan after Land Court cleanup, eyes housing session. The board voted unanimously to re-endorse the approval-not-required plan for 129 Dedham Street after the Land Court requested minor textual notations, adding the words "ditch," "brook," and "line" and re-verifying a stone wall location, with town planner Melissa Santucci-Rosner confirming the revisions "do not in any material way impact the plan." An email blast to 161 recipients and flyers across Dover are driving attendance for a community housing engagement session set for May 30 at 9 a.m. at the community center. Santucci-Rosner estimated a full master plan process would take 12 to 18 months and warned that communities that skip post-adoption implementation committees tend to see plans "sit there and collect dust." Chair Carol Lisbon announced a December deadline for finalizing next year's bylaw articles and said the board will spend the summer conducting a postmortem on what she called a town meeting "unlike anything I've seen in my almost 50 years here." The meeting also marked the final appearance of 10-year board member Jodi Hsu, credited by colleagues with driving Dover's MBTA Communities Act work to the "one yard line."