Finance Committee Deadlocks on MBTA Zoning, Votes 3-2 Against Recommending It

WEST BRIDGEWATER -- April 17, 2025, West Bridgewater Finance Committee voted 3-2 against recommending the MBTA Communities Act zoning overlay district and unanimously backed a $46.7 million operating budget for the annual town meeting. Town Administrator David Gagne spent nearly an hour walking the five-member panel through the overlay's implications, disclosing that the Board of Selectmen had also voted 3-0 against recommending the article while conceding noncompliance could cost the town state grants, including a $479,000 South Elm bridge match and a $6 million Forrest Street bridge repair, as well as potential legal fees echoing the $300,000-plus Milton case. Gagne outlined a "two birds, one stone" scenario in which property owner Mark McLeod has verbally agreed to develop the designated Ramco-Mallory parcel as a 40B affordable project, which would push the town past its 40B housing threshold and block further such developments until the early 2030s. The committee failed three times to agree on a recommendation before a final 3-2 vote against the article; it also tabled Article 37 on portable-shed regulation until a May 12 pre-town-meeting session, and unanimously recommended a new veterans' tax exemption COLA provision estimated at roughly $1,500 per year under the state HEROES Act.