Boxborough Planning Board votes to restore hazardous waste ban, advances zoning cleanup

BOXBOROUGH -- December 2, 2024, Boxborough Planning Board released a subdivision bond, opened debate on a zoning bylaw cleanup, and voted 4-2 to reserve a spot on the annual town meeting warrant for a proposed new Business 2 zoning district along Massachusetts Avenue. Town Planner Alec Czarty announced he has reversed an earlier legal opinion and now believes the town may have a viable grandfathering argument to restore a hazardous waste facility prohibition struck from the zoning bylaw during the 2022 recodification, with a public hearing scheduled for December 16. The cleanup article covers 14 discrete corrections to the recodified bylaw, including cross-reference errors and footnote mismatches; the board voted unanimously to continue that public hearing to December 16 to allow input from the Zoning Board of Appeals. Members Cindy Markowitz and Rebecca Werner voted against the Business 2 placeholder, both citing the late hour of the discussion and a desire to give the proposal more deliberation time earlier in a meeting agenda. The board also heard a conceptual presentation from engineer Bruce Ringwald of GPR on a plan by the Follett family of 120 Cobley Road to create one additional residential lot using a shared gravel driveway that has served the property for more than 50 years, with formal waiver requests from private common driveway construction standards to follow.