Billerica Planning Board sends dog daycare, industrial zoning changes to town meeting

BILLERICA -- September 9, 2025, Billerica Planning Board unanimously recommended two zoning warrant articles to fall town meeting, including a rewrite of dog daycare rules and a broad industrial-zone economic development package. Article 33 removes the existing 15-dog capacity limit from zoning and ties future limits to the animal control kennel licensing process, aligning with the newly enacted state Ollie's Law; Building Commissioner Mark Lallumia argued the change "puts the enforcement where it should be." Article 35 would allow nursing homes, retail, restaurants, banks, and wholesale operations by right in industrial zones, and adds adult daycare as a new permitted use, amended at the meeting to prohibit that use in all residential and neighborhood business districts. The board also endorsed, 5-2, the release of a 100-foot industrial buffer on Federal Street tied to an old subdivision agreement, over objections from member Blake Robertson, who argued an MBTA Communities overlay does not constitute a rezoning. A public hearing on the proposed Engine 2 fire station at 176 Boston Road was continued to a special September 15 meeting pending peer review sign-off from Kimley Horn.