Billerica Planning Board approves two lot-line splits, debates MBTA zoning draft

BILLERICA -- November 13, 2023, Billerica Planning Board approves two lot-line adjustments and begins scrutinizing first draft of MBTA Communities zoning. The board voted unanimously Monday to approve a B2 lot-line adjustment at 143 Pollard Street, splitting a roughly five-acre parcel while keeping new construction out of wetland buffers, and a second unanimous B2 approval corrected a decades-old surveying error at 856-858 Boston Road where the recorded lot line ran through an occupied structure. The meeting's main event was a first-look presentation of draft zoning required under MGL Chapter 40A, Section 3A, which mandates that Billerica zone for at least 2,323 multifamily units by right near North Billerica station. The draft proposes three sub-districts with a maximum density of 15 units per acre in the residential neighborhood district and 50 units per acre in the Mills District, a 1.5-space-per-unit parking minimum, and a 10 percent affordability requirement. Chair Blake Robertson and member Mike Parker challenged the parking standard as insufficient for real-world unit mixes, while member Mike Sanderson objected to including the Treble Cove sub-district, saying a residential parcel within its boundary had been specifically protected by a prior town meeting vote. The board agreed to submit written comments by November 27 and review a revised draft at the December 11 meeting before the consultants submit the zoning to the state for a 90-day preliminary compliance review.