Newbury Select Board Sends Zoning Overhaul to Public Hearing, Eyes May Town Meeting

Select Board · Meeting of February 10, 2026

Newbury Select Board unanimously refers sweeping zoning overhaul to Planning Board and warns of its tightest budget year in recent memory. The board voted to send a four-part zoning amendment package — covering a full bylaw recodification, table of use revisions, a new clean energy facilities article, and a new Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw — to a public hearing anticipated for March 4, with Town Meeting set for May 5. Planning Director Kristen Grubbs said the package is the product of eight months of staff work and five Planning Board sessions.

Assistant Town Administrator Joy Stanton reported total new revenue growth of only roughly $750,000, with insurance costs up approximately 13 percent, calling the outlook "the worst since I've been here." Board member Patrick Heffernan, reporting from a contentious Triton District Coordinating Council meeting, warned that the school committee's tentative budget vote — scheduled for the following evening — would lock in a spending ceiling that "can't then be raised" after public comment, a process he called "backwards." The board also unanimously appointed Newbury native Joshua Walker as a Zoning Board of Appeals associate member and accepted a $100,000 MVP climate resilience grant credited to Conservation Agent Mason Farrick.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of February 10, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.