Pepperell Planning Board Sets $699,445 Bond for Long-Stalled Heritage Estates Subdivision

PEPPERELL — July 18, 2022 — Pepperell Planning Board sets $699,445 performance bond and 2023 completion deadline for long-delayed Heritage Estates subdivision. The board voted unanimously Monday to formalize the bond amount — split across Bacon Street at $551,548, East Street at $44,990, and Minigel Circle at $68,937, each carrying a 10 percent contingency — and to approve a project extension with enforceable milestone dates: an interim as-built survey due by October 7, 2022, structural pavement repairs completed by November 30, 2022, and substantial completion of all roadway and site infrastructure by August 2023. Attorney Paul Alfin, representing developer Ken Tully and property owners Ken and George McGovern, submitted an updated tri-party agreement with Enterprise Bank and a supplemental passbook security to satisfy the updated bond. The board also launched a wide-ranging discussion of a proposed Chapter 40R Smart Growth Overlay District covering five town-center parcels, with Town Planner Jenny warning that without 40R adoption, the developer behind the proposed Layton Street project will proceed under Chapter 40B — a state permitting pathway that would strip the town of design, density, and phasing controls and eliminate an estimated $750,000 in state incentive payments tied to the Layton Street project alone.