Boxborough Planning Board lays groundwork for municipal-use zoning ahead of August hearing

BOXBOROUGH — July 16, 2025 — Boxborough Planning Board spent two hours in a July 16 working session mapping out a new municipal-use category for the town's zoning bylaw, with a public hearing set for August 4. The five-member board, chaired by Rebecca Werner, worked toward a tiered use table that would allow public safety facilities — read: the long-sought new fire station — by right in all districts, while placing more intensive municipal uses such as public works yards, municipal water, and a transfer station under tighter geographic limits or question marks pending public comment. The board voted 4-1, with Mark White opposed, to submit two formal questions to the building inspector: whether the existing fire station qualifies as a professional-or-business-office use and whether it is a preexisting nonconforming structure. Town Planner Alec Wade was tasked with drafting two or three definitions each for community services, public safety, municipal water, and municipal sewer before the August 4 hearing, drawing on comparable bylaws from Harvard, Groton, and Stowe. The board left unresolved whether public safety facilities in agricultural-residential zones should require a special permit — and, if so, whether the planning board or the Zoning Board of Appeals would serve as the granting authority.