Boxborough Conservation Commission Unanimously Backs Campanelli Commercial Campus Expansion

BOXBOROUGH — October 2, 2025 — Boxborough Conservation Commission votes to support Campanelli Partners' bid to expand its Swanson Road commercial campus by up to 660,000 square feet. The commission voted unanimously October 2 to authorize its chair to send a letter of support to the Planning Board ahead of that board's October 6 hearing on Campanelli's application to renew an expired Open Space Commercial District permit for a 20-year term. Russell Dion, a Campanelli partner, told the commission the project would place more than 250 acres — roughly 71 percent of the 350-acre former Cisco Systems campus — into permanent conservation restriction, while building out approximately 90 acres for research-and-development tenants in up to five new structures of 65,000 to 75,000 square feet each. Community benefits offered include a donation of five-acre Lot 100 to Boxborough, $25,000 for land-use feasibility on that parcel, and a grassland management plan for bird habitat developed with the state's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. Commission members signaled they want to review Campanelli's turtle-barrier maintenance plan — covering habitat for eastern box turtles and Blanding's turtles on 76 acres where the commission holds a conservation restriction — before offering unconditional endorsement, and Dion committed to press Natural Heritage to share documents directly with the commission.