Select Board Unanimously Chooses Housing Authority Site for MBTA Zoning

WEST NEWBURY — August 28, 2025 — West Newbury Select Board picks housing authority site for MBTA zoning, setting November town meeting vote. The board voted unanimously Thursday — with one member recused because he abuts a competing parcel — to place the West Newbury Housing Authority parcel on the November 3 special town meeting warrant as the town's chosen MBTA Communities zoning location, rejecting a privately owned parcel at 902 Main Street held by the Society of Saint John the Evangelist and a section of the town-owned Great Hill property. All three sites had been cleared as eligible by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities in a pre-adoption review letter received the week before. The Select Board chair, before recusing himself, said the town averages roughly $600,000 per year in state grants and that non-compliance could cost average homeowners an estimated $1,000 more annually in taxes. Ian Burns of the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, participating remotely, warned that under the bylaw as currently written, a developer — not the planning board — would designate the exact 5.8-acre development area within any chosen parcel, a point that drove concern about voter clarity at town meeting. The proposal now goes to the planning board for a 65-day public hearing before the December 31 compliance deadline.