Boxborough Planning Board Votes to Hold August Hearing on MBTA Housing District Fix

BOXBOROUGH — July 6, 2026 — Boxborough Planning Board schedules August public hearing to fix a state housing compliance error in its MBTA Communities Overlay District. The board voted 4-0 at its July 6 meeting to hold a public hearing on August 3 on revisions to the district, which a faulty Excel spreadsheet left calculating at only 12.1 units per acre — well below the 15-unit-per-acre minimum required by state law. Town Planner Alec presented two alternatives: Alternative 1 raises the bylaw's written density figure from 13 to 17 units per acre, producing a calculated 15.7 without any map changes; Alternative 2 adds the single-family parcel at 1178 Hill Road to the district and raises the written figure only to 15, yielding a calculated 15.9. Member Mark White argued for the simpler text-only fix, calling it "a technical correction to the district," while member Chris Doughty favored Alternative 2 as more responsive to town meeting feedback that the original district lacked genuinely buildable land. The board also approved 3-0 a minor modification to the special permit for The Park at Beaverbrook, removing less than one-tenth of an acre of Harvard-jurisdiction land from conservation conditions while noting that a survey of Open Space Area D returned roughly three additional acres — a net conservation gain.