Billerica Planning Board Continues Lab Campus Hearing, Advances Street Acceptances

BILLERICA — March 13, 2023 — Billerica Planning Board continues Route 3 lab campus hearing and kicks off overdue subdivision code rewrite. The board voted unanimously March 13 to continue the site plan special permit for KS Partners' proposed 120,000-square-foot GMP lab building at 298 Concord Road to April 10, after peer reviewer Phil Paradis of Beta Group called the project "a very good project" with only minor outstanding items including signage, a pedestrian access plan, and a sewer pump station report. Applicant representative Zachary Richards of Bowler Engineering said the new building is designed to unlock tenant interest in the full Route 3 campus, noting that occupancy at the existing site had dropped from roughly 50 percent to around 20 to 25 percent since the 2021 approval. Member Blake Robertson pressed for "a more concerted effort and commitment on getting something done," citing constituent pressure over the town's commercial tax base. The board also unanimously recommended that the Select Board accept eight private streets as public ways, primarily in the Sewer District 38 area, clearing a prerequisite for future sewer upgrade scheduling. Consultant Denise McClure of McClure Planning presented a plan to overhaul the town's 1996 subdivision regulations — which she said contain no submission procedures, no current design standards, and no codified process for the locally invented B2 subdivision category — with a draft expected before the July end of the fiscal year.