Boxborough Planning Board Recommends Public Safety Zoning Change for October Town Meeting

BOXBOROUGH — August 18, 2025 — Boxborough Planning Board votes 4-1 to recommend public safety facility zoning in all districts. Meeting for more than five hours on August 18, the board advanced a zoning bylaw amendment that would allow town-owned or operated facilities for police, fire, emergency medical services, and emergency management by site plan approval in every zoning district, sending the article to an October 2025 Special Town Meeting. A competing overlay-district approach limiting such uses to commercial and industrial parcels along Route 111 failed 2-3, with members Rich Guzzardi and Mark White arguing it would exclude at least one candidate site — 72 Stowe Road — from consideration. Fire Station Building Committee Chair Mary Brolin read a unanimous committee letter endorsing the by-all-districts approach. The board also unanimously recommended a state-mandated MBTA Communities multifamily overlay district covering 10.54 acres near Hill Road and Leonard Road, with a bylaw density of 13 units per acre that models to 15.7 units per acre and a theoretical maximum of 164 units — above the town's minimum threshold of 118. Consultant John Cruz of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council confirmed that a legal cap at 118 units is not permissible under state guidance.