Pepperell Planning Board Revises Zoning Table, Transfers Boarding House Review to Planning Board

PEPPERELL — May 19, 2025 — Pepperell Planning Board advances sweeping zoning table revisions, orders developer drainage fix. Working through the town's table of principal uses for the second time since March, a three-member quorum — Chair Alcott, Amanda Huntington, and Sean Dory — moved boarding house permits from the Select Board to the planning board, collapsed duplicate child care entries into a single special permit line, created a new Airbnb short-term rental category under planning board review across all districts, and assigned planning board special permit authority to cell towers townwide with a directive to draft height standards modeled on the existing wind-energy bylaw. The board tabled all commercial-use entries pending clarification of right-to-farm conflicts under MGL Chapter 40A Section 3, and asked the building inspector and zoning officer to weigh in on manufactured and modular housing before a line is added to the table. In a separate action, staff reported that silt-blocking catch basin covers at the recently approved 147 Narrows Road site clogged during a recent storm, sending roughly four feet of water onto the road; the board directed that cleanup costs be invoiced to the property owner and a formal memo sent to the project's engineer of record before building permits advance.