Billerica Planning Board directs staff to draft comprehensive plan steering committee warrant article

BILLERICA -- July 13, 2026, Billerica Planning Board votes 6-1 to pursue comprehensive plan steering committee at fall Town Meeting. The board directed staff Monday to draft warrant article language creating a new ad hoc steering committee to guide public engagement for a full update of the town's 2018 comprehensive plan, with the warrant deadline set for August 17. Staff have filed a one-stop grant application for $150,000 to fund a consultant and said the steering committee must be formed this fall to be ready when contracting is expected to begin in early spring. Member Blake Robertson cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing the board should simply update specific goals in the existing plan rather than launch a full replacement process. "I'm not convinced that we need a steering committee," Robertson said. "I think we need to just get a few updates on some of the goals that we have and we roll forward." The board also closed a public hearing on the Greystone Estates subdivision rescission after applicant Craftsman Village Billerica LLC withdrew the application, with multiple Gray Street abutters arguing on the record that a June 24 Zoning Board of Appeals administrative action improperly displaced Planning Board jurisdiction over the subdivision's 2008 Form E Covenant, questions staff agreed to research for a future agenda item.