Carver Planning Board Votes to Submit MBTA Zoning Article to Special Town Meeting

CARVER -- August 12, 2025, Carver Planning Board selects three MBTA zoning districts and votes to place compliance article on special town meeting warrant. The board voted 4-0 Tuesday to submit an article amending the town's zoning bylaw and map to comply with the MBTA Communities Act, identifying Meadowbrook Way, West Street, and Spring Street Extension, including parcels on both sides of the extension, as the three candidate districts where property owners would be permitted to build multifamily housing at 15 units per acre, meeting the town's required minimum unit capacity of approximately 235. Will Radigan of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association presented the law's background, citing a median Carver home price of $580,000 and a starting teacher salary of $51,000 as evidence of the affordability gap the law targets, and warning that noncompliance risks loss of roughly 17 state grant programs and Attorney General enforcement beginning January 1, 2026. Board Chair Connie Kerslake, who moved the compliance article, called the board's position "a Hobson's choice," and multiple members and residents rejected Radigan's framing, with one board member calling it "completely one-sided." The board also approved a minor site plan modification for King Richard's Faire allowing portable vendor gazebos at the former Edaville site, approved removal of three dead trees including one at 16 High Street added at the meeting, and continued a duplex special permit application at 86 High Street to August 26 pending Conservation Commission documentation.