Billerica Finance Committee Backs Four Articles, Rejects Golf Course Elderly Housing Overlay

BILLERICA -- September 23, 2025, Billerica's Finance Committee recommended four fall town meeting articles and voted against a controversial elderly housing overlay on Swanson Meadows Golf Course. The committee voted unanimously to recommend Article 39, rezoning 164 Concord Road from neighborhood residential to neighborhood business to preserve a 23-year-old accounting and financial planning firm, a change the Planning Board had already backed 6-0 and that would roughly double the property's annual tax bill from $10,569 to $19,510. The committee also unanimously backed Article 31 to transfer roughly 60 town-owned wetland parcels to the Conservation Commission, Article 33 updating dog daycare zoning to defer maximum dog counts to animal control and licensing authorities under the forthcoming state Ollie's Law framework, and Article 35, a joint Select Board and Planning Board initiative, broadening permitted uses in commercial and industrial zones to allow veterinary practices, retail stores, indoor amusement, and adult daycare where previously barred. The golf course overlay, Article 38, drew opposition from Phase 1 and Phase 2 condominium association presidents who cited supermajority opposition among their combined 80 units, with Select Board member Michael Rosa testifying as a resident that projected unit prices of $875,000 were unrealistic and that the town's water draw permits "don't easily get increased" to serve a development of 150-plus units; the Planning Board had split 3-3 on the article and the Select Board approved it only 3-2.