Billerica Master Plan Oversight Committee Elects Chair, Begins Long-Delayed Implementation Review

BILLERICA -- June 30, 2025, Billerica's Long Range Master Plan Oversight Committee reorganized and launched a review of 65 implementation action items from the town's 2018 master plan after years of inactivity. Planning Board member Anthony Ventas was unanimously elected chair at the June 30 meeting, the committee's first active session in several years. Planning staff outlined the committee's charge under the town's general bylaw, reviewing four elements of the master plan covering land use, transportation, public facilities and services, and natural and cultural resources, and noted the plan's public outreach is now a decade old, placing it at the edge of its standard 10-to-15-year life cycle. Members divided preliminary research responsibilities and discussed strategies for annotating the implementation matrix, with the Select Board representative taking the transportation section. Two seats remain vacant, one appointed by the School Committee and one by the Town Moderator, with staff noting that moderator-appointee applications go to the Town Clerk's office. The committee's findings will inform the Planning Board's decision on whether to launch a new full public update of the master plan.