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Acton code officer reports 43 active home builds, moves to clear 384 open permits as land-use fees are updated
Summary
Code Enforcement Officer David Riley told the Select Board the town is managing a surge in building activity — about 43 homes under construction and roughly 384 inherited open permits — while the board approved a revised Land Use Fee Schedule and the town hired a Land Use assistant to help process backlog.
David Riley, Acton’s code enforcement officer, told the Select Board on March 11 that the town is handling a heavy permitting workload after he inherited roughly 384 open permits upon taking the job in January. Riley said staff closed about 50 of those files in one week with help from recently hired Land Use Assistant Janane and that about 43 houses are under construction at varying stages.
The scale of the backlog, Riley said, reflects a run of applications the office must process while maintaining inspections: 16 inspections were logged in January and 38 in February after Riley’s appointment. He told the board that some occupancies occurred this week that were not yet counted in system totals.
Riley also briefed the board on growth-permit activity and the local cap established in the zoning ordinance. He provided a four‑year rundown of growth-permit counts and discussed whether the town’s moratorium or cap needs revisiting given current development pressure.
At the same meeting the Select Board voted to approve a revised Town of Acton Land Use Fee Schedule, adopting the Code Officer’s recommendations (motion by David Winchell Jr.; seconded by Ed Walsh). The board also discussed a proposed change to the Land Use calendar that the Code Office will bring to new business for a formal vote.
Town Administrator Jennifer Roux said the Land Use assistant has been on the job about two and a half weeks and that the administrator’s office is coordinating additional training for the new hire to speed permitting tasks.
Why this matters: the permit backlog and the number of residential builds affect inspection capacity, municipal review timelines, and revenue from fees. The Land Use Fee Schedule change is intended to align fees and staffing to the current workload and to help the town clear long-running open permits.
The board did not adopt any change to the growth-cap ordinance during the meeting; Riley and staff will continue reviews and bring recommendations back to the Select Board if regulatory changes are warranted.
