Billerica Planning Board unanimously releases $590,000 Sumner Farms performance bond

BILLERICA — May 11, 2026 — Billerica Planning Board releases $590,624 Sumner Farms bond, delays Craftsman Village rescission vote again. The board voted unanimously Monday to free the remaining performance bond on the fully built 60-lot Sumner Farms subdivision, originally bonded at more than $4 million in 2016, after Attorney James Dengora walked members line by line through DPW closeout memos dated June 6, 2025 showing "no further comment" on every outstanding category — including a $338,959 contingency and $22,878 inflation reserve the applicants' attorney argued had no regulatory basis to begin with. The same board continued the Craftsman Village subdivision rescission hearing for the second consecutive month after a four-sentence memo from Building Commissioner Marco Lumiere, offered in place of a full town counsel opinion addressed to the Planning Board, failed to satisfy members who said they still lacked clarity on the board's own legal authority in the matter. Abutters from Gray Street, including residents Larry Keegan and Greg Pino, pressed the board on what they described as an 18-year gap in the town's documentation for the underlying 2008 subdivision. The board also voted unanimously to advance Warrant Article 37 — a three-tiered site plan review bylaw drafted with NIMCOG — to Town Meeting beginning May 19, despite a 6-4 split Finance Committee recommendation.