Pepperell Planning Board Votes to Urge Finance Committee to Fund Full-Time Planner

PEPPERELL — March 1, 2021 — Pepperell Planning Board sends staffing letter to Finance Committee, scrambles after member resigns. The board unanimously voted March 1 to transmit a letter to the Finance Committee urging the town to fund a full-time planner, arguing current staffing levels are unsustainable given the volume of master plan implementation, permitting, and grant work underway. The board also approved its 2020 annual report — amended to include the adoption of the housing production plan — and voted to defer a plan endorsement for 2 Carbell Street to its March 15 meeting so an absent member could weigh in on redesigned parking plans, with design engineer Ian Ainsley confirming his client agreed to the delay. Late in the meeting, Chair Casey disclosed a same-day resignation letter from member Joe Lonergan, prompting Town Planner Lisa to warn that the board may lack the four qualifying members needed to legally deliberate on a pending special permit case. "You need to ask Joe to maybe delay," she said. "Otherwise we were in a horrible situation." Casey agreed to contact Lonergan the following day and begin the 10-day Select Board process to appoint an interim member. The meeting opened with acknowledgment of the death of Select Board Chair Bill Greathead.