Southborough advisory committee approves amended letter backing zoning change for retail project, removes Costco reference

The Town of Southborough Advisory Committee voted to approve an amended advisory letter supporting a zoning article that would allow a large retail development to advance to site-plan review, and it removed an explicit reference to Costco from the draft letter.

The vote took place during the committee’s virtual meeting; the motion to approve the amended letter and grant Marcy authority to make final copy edits passed by roll call with all voting committee members recorded as "aye." The committee’s discussion focused on traffic patterns, wastewater capacity, the special-permit process, and the potential tax revenue that commercial development could bring to the town.

The committee said the zoning change under consideration would allow future site plans for commercial uses to move forward regardless of which tenant ultimately occupies the property. "So, I you know, the gist for article 1 ... the zoning change would allow site plan to move forward in a general sense regardless of who might come there," said Andrew (committee member), who led drafting and calculations for the letter. Committee members agreed to remove language that named Costco specifically after a resident urged that the zoning article itself is separate from any single retailer.

Committee members pressed for clarity about traffic and wastewater. Howard (committee member) noted the commercial use would create different traffic patterns than office development and said peak activity would likely be on weekends rather than weekday morning commutes. Members also said the special-permit and major-site-plan processes before the Planning Board would require the developer to address traffic and wastewater details.

The committee discussed projected tax revenue if the project is built as presented by the developer, Atlantic Management. Andrew (committee member) walked through a back-of-envelope calculation shown during the meeting: he estimated an assessed valuation increase of roughly $289 million would generate about $4.0 million in annual tax revenue under current rates. "So in theory, $4,000,000 tax bill, annual tax bill would be a valuation of 289,000,000," Andrew said while sharing the Department of Revenue/Division of Local Services figures used in the calculation.

Using that estimate, committee members said the town’s current assessed-value split — roughly 84% residential and 16% commercial/industrial/personal property — could shift if the project were fully developed. Committee calculations shown during the meeting suggested the residential share could fall from about 84% to roughly 78%, with commercial rising to about 22% if the full project were built out and produced the estimated revenue.

Members stressed that the estimate depends on comparables and the developer’s buildout assumptions. Several members noted Atlantic Management cited comparable projects in Marlborough and Westborough when describing expected assessed values. The committee did not adopt a firm forecast of effects on individual tax bills and said a more detailed levy/impact calculation was possible but outside the scope of the advisory letter.

During public comment, Claire (resident) urged the committee to avoid conflating the zoning article with any single retail tenant. "This article really does not have anything to do with Costco," Claire said, arguing the letter should focus on the zoning question. Following that comment the committee voted to remove the Costco reference and replace it with language describing the parcel as suitable for "major commercial retail."

The committee approved the amended letter and explicitly granted Marcy (committee member) authority to make final "Scribner's" edits and formatting fixes before circulation. The committee also agreed to circulate the final letter and the numeric calculations used in their discussion to members after the meeting.

The advisory committee intends to present the letter at the upcoming special town meeting and noted a room is reserved for an advisory meeting if last-minute changes require it. No formal vote on zoning was taken by the committee itself; the action recorded was approval of the advisory letter and authorization for final edits.

The committee meeting ran about 42 minutes and featured detailed drafting and a shared screen showing assessed-value and tax-rate calculations. Members indicated the special-permit review by the Planning Board and subsequent site-plan work would be the venue for traffic and wastewater mitigation details.