Millbury Board Of Appeals Approved Chapter 40B Rice Pond Village Project

On Wednesday, August 14, 2024, the Millbury Board of Appeals approved the proposed Chapter 40B Rice Pond Village project, largely granting developers Steven Venincasa and James Venincasa their project as submitted with some conditions. The Millbury Board of Appeals largely dismissed the neighborhood's legitimate public safety and other concerns, suggesting that residents could appeal in superior court.

Throughout their deliberations, it was clear that the Millbury Board of Appeals was unfamiliar with key details of the project. For instance, they relied on an outdated list of neighborhood requests and treated the developer’s engineer, who is an employee of the developer’s limited liability corporation, Azimuth Land Design, LLC, as an independent impartial source.

The Board of Appeals also heavily relied on Conor McCormack, the Millbury Town Planner, as their primary advisor, despite his lack of experience with Chapter 40B projects. Conor McCormack is known for being a rubber-stamp for developers on nearly every other project in town, often suggesting and supporting waivers for zoning bylaws and development rules that favor developers over taxpayers and residents. As a practice, Conor McCormack does not include public comments from public hearings in draft decisions and leaves it up to individual board members to track whether or not to consider or include them in deliberations.

Neighbors have voiced their concerns about the well-known and well-documented public safety issues, stating that it’s not a matter of if, but when someone will be seriously injured or worse.

While the project design has improved since its inception, it remains in the wrong location and will worsen public safety issues, likely leading to serious injuries or fatalities in the future. This is not an exaggeration but a probable outcome due to the deficiencies of Rice Road, the inadequacies of the Providence & Worcester Railroad crossing, and the problematic intersections of Rice Road with Providence Street and South Main Street. Let’s hope the decision-makers are ready to face the consequences of their choices—and the karma that comes with them.

It’s no wonder people refer to the Millbury Board of Appeals as the “Board of Approval."