Carver Select Board Advances 40R Housing Application, Presses for Water Study First

CARVER -- May 19, 2026, Carver advances 40R smart-growth zoning review as officials press for water and fiscal studies before town meeting. Town Planner Sean Lewis told the Select Board at its May 19 meeting that a sub-districting strategy to reduce the maximum unit count on a roughly 30-acre parcel from 298 to closer to 235 had failed, and that a new approach, splitting off about two acres of upland via an approval-not-required plan, is now being modeled by Barrett Consulting Group using the last of its available state funding. Lewis noted a 40R designation could bring up to $1.2 million in state incentive payments, compared to nothing under a Chapter 40B alternative. Board members pushed for an aquifer drawdown study and a Carver-specific fiscal impact study before any town meeting vote. Town Administrator Jim Cannon also updated the board on the stalled home rule legislation to absorb the North Carver Water District, which has passed the Senate but has sat in a House Committee of Third Reading since approximately November 2025, with board members urging Cannon to contact the Speaker of the House directly. The board voted 3 to 1 to delay the effective date of a vacation carryover reduction from three weeks to two weeks until July 1, 2026.