This statute authorizes a municipality’s conservation commission, authorized and formed under section eight(c) of chapter forty, to review applications of projects that may affect natural areas, including areas prone to flooding (floodplains). See paragraph one. The commission is authorized in paragraph seventeen to impose conditions on the submitted application to achieve its purpose of protecting floodplains. Under certain circumstances, such as when the commission fails to hold a public hearing or when it fails to make a final determination within twenty-one days of the hearing, interested parties may request the department of environmental protection to determine whether the area on which the proposed work is to be done is significant to flood control.