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.