Weston boards jointly approve updated Housing Production Plan after extended public comment

WESTON — September 14, 2021 — Weston boards jointly approve updated Housing Production Plan over historic-preservation objections. The Select Board voted 3-0 and the Planning Board 4-0 on Sept. 14 to send the document to the state Department of Housing and Community Development, capping a roughly two-year process led by steering committee Chair Sarah Radigan. Resident John Salley, who lives in a National Register home on Wellesley Street, called the plan's reference to a Historic Heritage Overlay District "disingenuous," warning it could "fundamentally change what Weston looks like" given that the pre-1945 demolition-delay bylaw covers roughly 850 of the town's 3,700 properties. Select Board Chair Harvey Boshart said overlay specifics belong at a future Planning Board hearing, not in the HPP. The revised plan also creates an implementation committee to be convened by Town Manager Leon. The board separately voted 3-0 to launch pay-as-you-throw on Oct. 1, with eligible low-income households receiving up to 70 large bags annually and $17,000 in state DEP grant funding seeding the program.