Dover Select Board Approves $40,000 MAPC Contract for Tree Preservation Bylaw

DOVER — February 19, 2026 — Dover Select Board unanimously approves $40,000 MAPC contract to draft a tree preservation bylaw. The contract combines a $12,000 state grant from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs with $28,000 from the Planning Board's professional services budget and was approved contingent on final review by town counsel Nina Pickard Cook. Board of Appeals Chair George Chimento also briefed the board on two years of casework, including the town's pending Superior Court appeal of a state housing ruling in the Troutbrook 40B case — a decision that could allow developers to satisfy affordable housing requirements by placing a single affordable unit on a non-contiguous parcel while building market-rate homes elsewhere. Chimento noted the board's $150 filing fee has not changed since 2001 and urged a peer-town comparison. Town Administrator Mike reported health insurance rates came in at 8.03 percent — well below the 15 percent budgeted — and that the state has elevated Dover's region to a Level 2 significant drought despite recent snowfall.