Pepperell Planning Board Adopts Bond Security Rules, Clears Path for Future Permits

PEPPERELL — May 16, 2022 — Pepperell Planning Board adopts performance security rules and advances smart growth overlay plans. The board voted 3-0 with one abstention Monday to formally adopt rules under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 44, Section 53G½, closing a procedural gap identified by Town Counsel while drafting the town's stormwater regulations. Town Planner Jenny — whose last name was not captured in the broadcast — explained that the board had long required bonds from applicants but had never formally voted to accept the governing rules. The board also received a detailed briefing from NEMCOG's draft analysis on a proposed Chapter 40R smart growth overlay district that could yield up to $600,000 in state zoning incentive payments and additional per-unit density bonuses, with target areas near Lomar Park, the senior center, Layton Street, and the Railroad Square mill site; Pepperell currently sits below three percent affordable housing, far short of the 10 percent safe-harbor threshold. A key discussion centered on merging the proposed 40R overlay with the Mixed Use Overlay District under development, which Jenny said could prevent developers from choosing the lower-affordability-requirement MUOD over the 40R — a distinction board member Al underscored: "When you put in 40 houses [under 40B] you're getting next to nothing back in percentage factors over the three percent."