Planning Board advances MBTA Communities overlay, sends two warrant articles to Town Meeting

SUDBURY -- February 14, 2024, Sudbury Planning Board advances MBTA Communities overlay, adding a shuttle mandate and trimming the district to 52 acres. Members voted 5-0 on Feb. 14 to submit two spring Town Meeting warrant articles, one creating Section 4700C, the multi-family overlay district, and one amending the Section 5600 inclusionary affordable housing bylaw, after a line-by-line walk-through of consultant VHB's fourth draft. Chair Stephen Garvin and member Julie Zelermyer Perlman led pushes to cap density at "not greater than 15 units per acre," raise allowable height to four stories or 60 feet, lower the trigger for enclosed interior bicycle parking from 25 units to 10, and require shuttle service to the MBTA commuter rail. "If you want to build this out, you've got to do that," Garvin said of the transit mandate. The current footprint allows roughly 500 units against a state-required capacity near 200. Town Planner Adam Duchesneau will bring a revised draft to the Select Board in early March.