By Melanie Petrucci, Contributing Writer
Westborough – The Westborough Board of Selectmen opened a public hearing to consider the adoption of Site Plan Review Regulations at their Jan. 10 meeting. Town Manager Jim Malloy provided a brief history of the regulations and stated that at the Annual Town Meeting in 2014 authorized the board to adopt rules and regulations. At that time a set of regulations for site review didn’t exist for developers.
“To improve the process, one of the issues that came up was that there were no standards that engineers had to actually put together a site plan that made sure that it included everything that various departments needed,” Malloy said. “In 2014 we made an amendment to the site plan review bylaw and one of the things we added was the selectmen shall establish comprehensive rules and regulations and procedures for content for applicants to follow.”
Eighteen months later, after consulting with department heads about their concerns and creating a site plan application that met their needs and provided clarity, Malloy presented a draft for the board’s approval. Malloy suggested that the plan be reviewed after a year or so to make necessary alterations.
There being no public input during the hearing, the public hearing was closed and the board approved the Site Plan Review Regulations unanimously.