Above: Southborough voters will be asked to update what types of businesses/activities are allowed on properties in the Town’s Industrial Park Zone, highlighted in pink. (image from GIS Map)
This winter, the Planning Board is holding hearings on multiple, wide-ranging revisions to Southborough’s zoning bylaws.
On Monday, they opened hearings on four planned Annual Town Meeting Articles. And last week, the Select Board referred two additional ones for the board to tackle. Today, I’m covering a quick look at the full list and a deeper dive on one of them.
As always, the Planning Board is encouraging feedback on the proposed Articles. And the sooner the public weighs in, the better odds the board has of avoiding significant changes after the Warrant is printed.
Zoning Articles potentially headed to Annual Town Meeting
This week, the board opened its hearings on the following proposed Zoning Changes:
- Industrial Park District Expanded Uses (scroll down for more on this one)
- 55+ Housing Bylaw Update – proposed by the Board of the Affordable Housing Trust, to increase affordable housing options, especially for seniors
- MCOD Bylaw-Dimensional Table Correction – a correction to a table that was included in the MBTA Communities Overlay District zoning bylaw. As currently worded, it allows buildings taller than was intended and described by the board when they drafted it.
- Zoning Amendment – Replace SHOPC with Affordable Housing Trust (AHT) – When the Town bylaws were updated to replace references to the (now defunct) Southborough Housing Opportunity Partnership Committee with the board that replaced it, there were multiple omissions.
The board is planning on opening hearings soon on one or two more:
- Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Bylaw update – The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) has proposed changes to expand the allowed use, especially for smaller homes.
- Tricentennial Committee Signs – The Tricentennial Committee is working on plans to have sponsored banners on utility poles throughout the Town’s 300th anniversary. But the Town’s bylaws would need to be revised to allow the use. The committee began discussions with the Select Board and Planning Board and will continue working on a draft. There is there is a possibility that this one will be postponed to Special Town Meeting in the fall.
If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the zoning changes, save the date for the board’s next meeting on Monday, February 23rd.
For today, I’m previewing the long awaited changes to Industrial Park zoning. (Stay tuned for future coverage of the other zoning efforts.)
Industrial Park District Expanded Uses
This Article will ask voters to modernize allowed and permitted uses in the Industrial Park zone. The Planning Board hopes to make the zoning “friendlier” for economic development
On Monday, Vice Chair Marnie Hoolahan, who has been leading the effort, said she looked at whether uses under the Industrial and Industrial Park (IP) zones should be combined. She advised against that.
The proposed IP bylaw changes eliminate some antiquated uses. It shifts some uses like hospitals, veterinary clinics, and public utilities from by right to by special permit.
More importantly, it adds a slew of new by right uses — most capped at up to 75,000 sq ft without a special permit. Those include Indoor or Outdoor Recreation, Fitness, Cultural, or Arts Facilities.
The bylaw would also add two more cutting edge uses that the board has found more challenging to craft bylaws around:
- Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), or “Small Clean Energy Infrastructure” (by right for up to 75,000 sq ft and a rated capacity of less than 100 megawatt hours)
- Data Centers (including for AI) by special permit
For the BESS, Southborough’s Public Health and Zoning departments provided feedback based on a state law and regulation. In addition to making language consistent with the law, Hoolahan was advised to address the expense involved in “decommissioning” a site in an owner walks away in the future.
The Vice Chair proposed proposed requiring owners make an advance security deposit to cover the future expense and add to that deposit over time, based on inflation.
For public clarity, Hoolahan was unsure about which term to use for the systems in the bylaw. The board (and other officials) have referred to them as BESS in past public meetings. But state law and regulations refer to them as “Small Clean Energy Infrastructure” facilities.
For Data Centers, the board has expressed concern about the amount of resources (electrical, water, and other Town facilities) that AI Data Centers use.
Hoolahan said that resident Tim Litt worked with her, suggesting “proactive language” for the special permitted use. Hoolahan said that due to the requirements for intense regulations and external consultants, she specified that permit would be through the Planning Board instead of the ZBA.
She noted that she isn’t sure Southborough has the “volume of land” needed for an AI Data Center, which she described as typically sited on hundreds of acres. But they didn’t want to be “caught unprepared” if an opportunity comes up.
Hoolahan encouraged the public to read the “dense” zoning Article and provide feedback. But even before the board discussed some edits on Monday night, the version posted in the meeting packet wasn’t the revised text she presented on Monday. So, I’d recommend staying tuned for the version to be posted in the packet for the February 23rd meeting.
(If you don’t want to wait until then, you can see the version in the packet here, and watch the discussion in Planning’s February 9th meeting here.)
On Monday, Planning member Alan Belniak suggested that since this zoning language is dense and complicated, Hoolahan should reach out to me to help me share accurate info with readers. (So, that’s another thing to stay tuned for leading up to Town Meeting.)
Earlier in the discussion, Hoolahan credited Belniak for having raised the need for business friendly zoning updates when he ran for the board in the past.1 The board began looking at IP zoning changes in 2024. The effort was delayed twice to allow the board and Town to focus on other zoning changes.
