Boxborough Planning Board Continues Both Active Public Hearings to July 21

BOXBOROUGH -- June 16, 2025, Boxborough Planning Board continues two public hearings to July 21 and stalls on associate member appointment. The board voted unanimously Monday to continue the hearing on a proposed eight-unit contractor storage facility at 975 Massachusetts Ave, filed by BHG 109 LLC through engineering firm GPR, and on Campanelli's application to amend and restate the Beaverbrook Road Open Space Commercial Development special permit for the 350-acre former Cisco campus, both to July 21, 2025. The Campanelli master plan proposes five new buildings totaling up to 667,500 square feet of lab, R&D, clean tech, and light manufacturing space, a reduction of roughly 240,000 square feet from the prior approved plan, along with a request to cut the parking ratio from 4.0 to 2.0 spaces per thousand square feet and extend the commercial development period from its 2015 expiration date to January 1, 2045; counsel Johanna Schneider said the project would enhance the town's tax base by an estimated $1.2 million to $1.3 million per year and restrict 94 new acres as open space, bringing the total to 248 of 350 acres. Conservation representatives from the Harvard Conservation Trust, the Boxborough Conservation Trust, and Sudbury Valley Trustees pressed Campanelli on whether restrictions would be recorded before permits issue and called for a long-term management plan, with particular concern about grassland bird habitat on lots 700 and 800. For the 975 Mass Ave hearing, peer reviewer Sue of Places Associates flagged insufficient centerline offset from Sarah's Way, a contested D-soils drainage assumption, and the building's likely visibility from Mass Ave due to front-of-site grading. A motion to appoint Nathaniel Stumps as associate planning board member was withdrawn after board members could not agree on whether the required joint appointment with the Select Board demands a majority of each board separately or a combined majority of all ten members, with Town Planner Alec directed to seek a legal opinion from town counsel before the June 30 working session.