Boxborough Planning Board Recommends Town Accept Subdivision Roads at May Meeting

BOXBOROUGH — May 1, 2023 — Boxborough Planning Board votes to recommend town acceptance of long-delayed Boxborough Meadows subdivision roads. The five-member board voted unanimously May 1 to send the road acceptance article to annual town meeting with a recommendation in favor, following a CCTV inspection of subsurface drain lines that found no deficiencies requiring repair or replacement and a staff cost estimate of $175,000 for surface repairs. Chair Mark Barbadoro acknowledged the town bore some responsibility for the delay, saying residents "purchased their homes knowing that that was supposed to happen and it just never did." The board also continued a public hearing for a three-unit trade shop proposed at 100 Codman Hill Road by French Brothers, Foxborough LLC to June 5, pending Conservation Commission resolution of a disputed Elizabeth Brook delineation and a pending engineering review by Places Associates. Acting Chair Cindy Markowitz walked the board through a draft MEPA comment letter on the proposed 1414 Massachusetts Avenue development, flagging a calculated floor-area ratio of approximately 0.156 against the town's 0.1 limit, a projected 6,343 new average daily vehicle trips, and a proposed wastewater discharge of roughly 55,000 gallons per day against a bylaw-derived cap of approximately 23,863 gallons. The public comment deadline with MEPA is May 10.