Boxborough Planning Board Continues Three Hearings, Sets MEPA Comment Deadline Vote

BOXBOROUGH -- August 21, 2023, Boxborough Planning Board extended deadlines and continued hearings on three Route 111-area development applications at its August 21 meeting, while scheduling a special session to draft state environmental comments on a 640,000-square-foot commercial proposal. Chairperson Mark White led a nearly five-hour Zoom session in which the board unanimously continued the 100 Codman Hill Road trade shop site plan review to October 2, and moved both the 1414 Massachusetts Avenue and Adams Place definitive subdivision hearings to September 18, each with decision deadlines extended to October 6, 2023. Traffic engineer Maximo Polanco of Langan Engineering disclosed that committed development projects and regional growth are projected to increase Route 111 volumes by "30 to 40 percent" between 2023 and 2030. Board member Cindy Markowitz pressed for peer review of competing traffic studies showing a nearly 30 percent discrepancy in baseline daily volumes; land use counsel Adam Costa advised that conditioning any subdivision approval on a future traffic study was the legally sound path. The board voted unanimously to schedule a September 6 special meeting to finalize comments to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act office on Campanelli Companies' Expanded Environmental Notification Form, with the public comment deadline set for September 8. A zoning bylaw amendment creating a "commercial dump" use by special permit in the Industrial Commercial District, required following an Attorney General ruling, was advanced to a future public hearing for the November 6 Special Town Meeting warrant.