Billerica Planning Board advances fire station, rewrites business zoning for fall town meeting

BILLERICA — August 12, 2025 — Billerica Planning Board continues fire station hearing, sponsors two fall zoning warrant articles. The board voted unanimously at its August 12 meeting to continue a public hearing on a proposed two-bay fire station at 176 Boston Road to September 9, after peer reviewer Danielle Leonor of Kimley Horn flagged unresolved stormwater revisions and ADA sidewalk compliance questions on the town-owned project. Building Commissioner Mark Lumiya told the board the design drew no opposition at the ZBA and received informal endorsement from the Select Board the previous evening. The board also voted unanimously to send a letter to MassDOT backing a wider curb-cut approach that would allow fire trucks to execute three-point turns on site rather than blocking Boston Road. In separate unanimous votes, the board agreed to sponsor two fall warrant articles due August 18: one replacing a fixed dog-per-district cap in the dog-daycare bylaw with a state kennel-license requirement, and one broadly upzoning commercial and industrial districts to allow by-right retail, restaurants, data centers, and adult daycare — a move framed as an economic development push to fill vacant industrial space. The board also heard early petitioner presentations on a proposed neighborhood-business rezoning of the 1812 Jakewith House at 164 Concord Road and a proposed elderly housing overlay at Swanson Meadows Golf Course, a parcel of more than 100 acres encumbered by a golf-use restrictive covenant that sunsets in 2030.