Planning Board Votes 4-0 Three Times to Endorse MBTA Zoning for Town Meeting

WEST NEWBURY -- April 22, 2025, West Newbury Planning Board votes 4-0 three times to back MBTA zoning and two other bylaw changes ahead of town meeting. Meeting on April 22, the four-member panel, Clerk Raymond A. Cook, Chair Ann E Bardeen, Deborah R. Hamilton, and Associate Member Tim Cronin, with one member absent, unanimously endorsed recommendations on the MBTA Communities Multi-Family Overlay District, the accessory dwelling unit bylaw, and floodplain overlay district amendments, all of which appear on the special town meeting warrant scheduled for April 28. The board confirmed that a previously proposed developer waiver on inclusionary zoning had been removed from the MCMOD bylaw after a second unanimous vote, and that the measure now mirrors the town's existing 10 percent affordable housing requirement and 35-foot height cap. Members cautioned that while the state's compliance deadline is December 31, 2025, the town's practical deadline is fall town meeting, not year-end. Cronin, stepping down after the May 5 election, attended what is expected to be his final regular Planning Board meeting.