Westborough Town Meeting to Vote on Downtown Zoning Overhaul March 21

Town Meeting · Meeting of March 18, 2026

Westborough's Annual Town Meeting will take up a proposal to consolidate the town's layered downtown zoning into a single district when residents meet Saturday, March 21 at 9 a.m. at the high school. Town Planner Jenny Gringas, appearing on Westborough TV's Article Showcase on March 18, explained that Article 31 would replace the current Downtown Business District, a Gateway overlay, a Downtown Planning Overlay District, and a 2,500-foot radius overlay, a tangle she said forces staff to consult "10 different places" to determine what any given parcel allows. The Planning Board voted to recommend approval after the article was referred back for revision following a fall town meeting.

Key changes include a maximum 10-foot front-yard setback designed to keep buildings at the sidewalk rather than behind parking lots, explicit listing of uses such as artist studios, performance spaces, and food halls, and inclusion of currently residential-zoned parcels, among them a church and multifamily properties, that would gain Design Review Board protection under the new framework. No existing permitted uses would be eliminated, and former industrial uses within the district would shift from by-right to special-permit status.

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Source: the Town Meeting meeting of March 18, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.