Weston Planning Board Sets Friday Deadline, Eyes Safe Harbor Milestone

WESTON -- December 4, 2025, Weston Planning Board closes in on 40B safe harbor as state housing pressure mounts. The board held a strategy session December 4 with no formal votes, focusing on procedural tightening and an accelerating state legislative agenda. Chair Leslie Glynn and the full board reached informal consensus on a Friday-at-5-p.m. submission deadline for applicant materials, mirroring a rule already used by the town's Zoning Board of Appeals. Vice Chair Alex Selvig cautioned against direct legislative lobbying, saying concerns about pending two-family zoning and institutional housing-rights bills should flow through the Select Board. Staff calculations placed Weston's Subsidized Housing Inventory at roughly 8.5 percent, with members saying as few as 36 additional units, potentially supplied by projects already in the pipeline, could push the town past the 10 percent "safe harbor" threshold that reverses the Housing Appeals Committee's presumption in favor of 40B applicants. Member Jing Yu flagged that three separate town bodies are currently using three incompatible demographic projections, with no agreed-upon set to anchor the upcoming Housing Production Plan update targeted for spring 2026 town meeting.