Frequently Asked Questions

Minutes are made available to the public only when they have been officially approved by the Planning Board. In most cases, the minutes from one meeting are approved at the next meeting, unless the Clerk or Acting Clerk were unavailable at that meeting for a signature. See the minutes online. If you have a request for minutes not posted online, please contact the Office by either telephone or email.

The Planning Board for the City of Marlborough generally meets on the same schedule as the City Council. The schedule is set in January of each year and is reflected on the Planning Board calendar.

Dimensional requirements for land in the City of Marlborough are governed by the City's Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 650). You must first determine whether you have sufficient land to meet the applicable requirements.

Contact a local surveyor or engineer who can determine the best way to subdivide and whether or not your property would meet the requirements of the Subdivision Rules and Regulations.

The Office of Inspectional Services provides assistance to individuals and contractors wishing to do construction in the City of Marlborough. The Office also serves to enforce regulations of the City's zoning ordinance, sign ordinance, fence ordinance, and Massachusetts state building code.

Mass. General Law Chapter 405, Section 15C (The Scenic Roads Act) allows any community to designate roadways within their community as “Scenic Roads”. Any road repair, maintenance, reconstruction, or paving work that will involve the cutting or removal of trees or the alteration of stone walls, or portions thereof on any designated scenic road, must be approved by the Planning Board. Anyone wishing to do such work must make an application for such work and a public hearing must be held before approval may be given.

An "open space" development means a development of residential lots in which land within the subdivision is set aside as permanently protected open space. In consideration for the open space concept, some of the dimensional requirements of that particular zone may be reduced.

A public hearing will be held for any preliminary or definitive subdivision plan. Abutters within five hundred (500) feet of the land being subdivided will be notified. The requirement states that the notification will go to the abutters who owned the property as of January 1st of that year.

Most subdivisions involve multiple lots on a larger parcel of land with the construction of a roadway. In some cases, single lots can be carved out of a larger lot or there can be a land swap between neighbors that does not require a full subdivision plan because the lots will meet all of the dimensional requirements of the current zoning as it applied to frontage requirements. In that case the term "approval not required" actually means "approval not required under the Subdivision Control Law." In that instance, the Planning Board reviews the plan to ensure that the plan meets three standards:

• The lots shown on the plan must front on one of three types of ways as specified in Chapter 41, Section 81L, MGL;
• The lots shown on the plan must meet the minimum frontage requirements as specified in Chapter 41, Section 81L, MGL; and
• The Planning Board's determination that the vital access to the lots as contemplated by Chapter 41, Section 81L, MGL., otherwise exist.

The following streets were designated as Scenic Roads by the City Council on June 22, 1992:

• Ash Street
• Beach Street
• Berlin Road
• Bigelow Street
• Brigham Street
• Church Street
• Clover Hill Street
• Concord Road
• Dudley Street
• East Dudley Street
• Elm Street
• Farm Road
• Fitchburg Street
• Framingham Road
• Hemenway Street
• Hemenway Street Extension
• Hosmer Street
• Millham Road
• Parmenter Road
• Pleasant Street
• Robin Hill Road
• Spoonhill Avenue
• Stevens Street
• Stow Road
• Sudbury Street
• Wayside Inn Road
• West Hill Road
• Westborough Road