Select Board approves Merriam Street historic restriction and launches pay-as-you-throw rollout team

WESTON — May 4, 2021 — Weston Select Board green-lights historic restriction, names pay-as-you-throw chair, hears Riverside zoning fight. The board voted 3-0 to accept a preservation restriction on the 1901 Queen Anne house at 261 Merriam St., purchased by a roughly 30-member neighborhood LLC, and 3-0 to establish a Pay-As-You-Throw Implementation Working Group chaired by David Ayer ahead of a Sept. 30 start. Sustainability Committee member Phoebe Beierle presented the finalized Weston Ahead plan, which targets 100 percent renewable municipal electricity by 2035 and net-zero community emissions by 2050 against a 12.4-ton-per-capita CO2 baseline. The board declined to take a position on a citizens' petition by Nirva Patel banning new fur sales, with member Chris Houston calling it "a classic the select board takes no position." A two-hour discussion of Greatland Realty Partners' Riverside Road redevelopment — projected to generate over $1.2 million in new annual taxes and include a $2 million contribution to town housing and conservation — surfaced sharp neighborhood disagreement over a companion housing overlay article ahead of the May 15 Town Meeting.