Boxborough Planning Board Approves Contractor Storage Facility 3-1 With Conditions

BOXBOROUGH — November 17, 2025 — Boxborough Planning Board approves eight-unit contractor storage facility on Route 111 in a 3-1 vote, while continuing a landscape yard hearing to January over unresolved noise and screening concerns. At the November 17 Zoom meeting, Chair Rebecca Werner and members Rich Guzardi and Chris Dowdy voted to approve the site plan for BHG 109 LLC's proposed contractor storage building at 975 Massachusetts Avenue, with conditions including a $31,000 sidewalk contribution, evergreen plantings at a minimum 10-to-12-foot height, deciduous trees at 3.5-to-4 caliper inches, and blasting restricted to 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Member Cindy Markowitz voted no, saying the project's extensive blasting, ledge removal, and visibility from the Steel Farm Trail meant it could not satisfy the site plan criterion requiring integration into the existing terrain and protection of community amenities. On the separate 984 and 996 Mass. Ave. landscape contractor yard application, the board voted unanimously to continue the public hearing to January 5, demanding a formal noise study by a certified acoustic engineer after field notes from a windy November site visit were deemed insufficient to establish regulatory compliance, and flagging unresolved screening gaps along the abutting residential property line.