Boxborough Planning Board Continues Taylor Farm Road Open-Space Lot Hearing to August 26

BOXBOROUGH -- August 5, 2024, Boxborough Planning Board unanimously continues Taylor Farm Road subdivision modification hearing, leaving open-space lot question unresolved. The board voted 5-0 on August 5 to continue to August 26 a public hearing on a request by Longwood Homes LLC and its agent Bruce Ringwall of Goldsmith, Pressl and Ringwall to reclassify an approximately 8.3-acre parcel, originally slated as a gift to the Conservation Commission, as a buildable lot, and to extend a dead-end-street waiver from 11 lots to 12. Acting Chair Rebecca Verner led the meeting in the absence of Chair Mark White, and the board elevated Associate Member Janet Keating Connolly to full voting status for the hearing after Town Planner Alec Wade advised the combined 2016 decision permitted it. Developer Glenn Kaufman told the board he had tried twice, in May and October 2022, to gift the land to the town and was twice refused by the Select Board, which cited the parcel's lack of connectivity to other town land and said it "would rather have the tax base from a single family house." Four abutters spoke in opposition, with residents of Taylor Farm Road and Flag Hill Road stating they were told at purchase the land would remain conservation property; abutter Brian Clements also alleged the hearing notice was improperly limited to abutters near Parcel 1 rather than all 300-foot abutters of the full 12-lot subdivision. Member Rich Guzardi said he was reluctant to reverse "months and months of hearing and deliberation by a prior planning board" in a single evening, and board members indicated they had not yet received the legal opinion exchanged between the applicant's attorney and town counsel that underpins the modification strategy.