Billerica panel weighs pickleball courts on old restaurant site

Conservation · Meeting of July 20, 2026

Billerica conservation panel opens review of a pickleball facility planned for a long-vacant restaurant site. Attorney Stephen Dressler told the Conservation Commission that owner John Lee wants to demolish the building at 15 Middlesex Turnpike, home to "seven or eight restaurants" since 2000, and build a 15-court pickleball and badminton facility; the hearing was continued to September 14 amid concerns over a deteriorating retaining wall and a 118-space parking lot encroaching on the required 50-foot wetland buffer. Elsewhere, the commission denied a certificate of compliance for a Charles Anne Lane property over incomplete buffer restoration, continued a hearing regarding a lakeside no-alteration zone of roughly 10 feet for a Nunning Lake accessory dwelling, and clashed over whether an existing shed near a wetland at 34 Doe Drive should be relocated, with member Diane DePaso pushing back after saying she missed the meeting where colleagues had settled the issue.

The panel also accepted a conservation restriction for 55A Richardson Street and released the final $5,000 of a wetlands-replication bond for the Summer Farm project.

In the full story:

• 15 Middlesex Turnpike: Restaurant Site Eyed for 15-Court Pickleball and Badminton Facility
• [00:23:40] — a Billerica Conservation Commission member
• 2026 Roadway Management Program: Farmer's Lane Culvert and Collard Street Drainage
• 7 Yale Street/Nunning Lake: ADU, Dock Replacement and a Fight Over Five Feet
• 14 Fourth Avenue: Shed Relocation Advances a Prior Commitment
• 34 Doe Drive: In-Law Addition Advances Amid Dispute Over an Existing Shed
• [01:32:29] — a Billerica Conservation Commission member
• Charles Anne Lane: Garage Addition, a Fence Swap and an Outstanding Compliance Problem
• 51 Sheldon Street: New Home Moved to Protect Rear Wetland
• [01:49:56] — Stephen Dressler, attorney for the applicant
• Continuances: 14 Sterling Road and Faulkner Street Dam Removal
• Administrative Matters: Compliance Files, a Conservation Restriction and a Bond Release
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,688 words

Source: the Conservation meeting of July 20, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.