West Newbury Voters Approve MBTA Housing Overlay, Reject Board Fee-Setting Power

WEST NEWBURY -- November 3, 2025, West Newbury voters approved an MBTA Communities Multi-Family Overlay District and rejected a proposal to let town boards set permit fees without a town meeting vote at the November 3 Special Town Meeting. The 13-article warrant's centerpiece, Article 9, designated a 7.5-acre district comprising West Newbury Housing Authority parcels, the senior housing complex, Hills Court off Batchelor Street, and a connecting town-owned parking lot, as the town's compliant MBTA zoning site, reversing a spring vote that had rejected a different location on privately owned land. Select Board member Wendy Reed said the site emerged from a summer working group of more than 40 resident suggestions and carries financial stakes of roughly $600,000 in annual state grants that noncompliant towns risk losing. Voters also unanimously approved transferring $461,938.85 from Water Enterprise Fund retained earnings to cover cost overruns on the Church and Prospect Street water main project; a water commissioner acknowledged the board failed to track a May 2024 change order that carried no dollar amount until it resurfaced in October 2025, though the total project remains approximately $720,000 under its $2.7 million appropriation. Article 12, which would have adopted MGL Chapter 40, Section 22F to authorize town boards to set fees administratively, failed after multiple residents argued it stripped town meeting of its traditional authority over municipal fee decisions.