Westborough to implement stormwater utility in July; select board enacts one-year sewer moratorium

Chris Pant, Director of Public Works for the Town of Westborough, told the Economic Development Committee on May 7 that the town will implement a stormwater utility and begin billing property owners in July, with charges computed from a property’s impervious area and applied on a quarterly basis. The fee schedule discussed at the meeting uses 2,000-square-foot units multiplied by a per-unit rate of $4.81; staff said billing will be quarterly and that a correction to earlier supporting text (an erroneous monthly reference in a regulation footnote) will be addressed.

Pant described two credit paths to reduce fees for properties that manage stormwater on-site: a 20% credit available via a one-page application for properties with qualifying pre-2008 infrastructure and ongoing maintenance documentation, and a 40% credit that requires engineering validation for larger, more complex systems. He said applications will open after the utility’s first quarter of billing and that the town will review credits annually.

On sewer capacity, Pant explained that the town has been updating its comprehensive wastewater management plan and that, after auditing permitted commitments versus actual metered flow, the select board approved a regulation implementing a one-year moratorium effective May 1 to pause increases to permitted wastewater flow at the regional treatment plant. “It says that there’s no increase to our wastewater flow to the plant,” Pant said, adding that exceptions are laid out in the regulation for previously paid allocations or other limited cases.

Committee members raised concerns about the moratorium’s impact on new development and tenant conversions that may require additional sewer capacity. One member, who identified themselves as a broker, said they were “a little disappointed that the select board didn’t have open it up for public discussion” before the vote and asked how to advise prospective developers; Pant recommended developers and property owners consult Community Development and DPW for project-specific guidance and acknowledged that older permits may be unclear on allocated flow. The committee also discussed the regional governance of the treatment plant, which is managed jointly by Westborough and Shrewsbury and must be engaged for any capacity-increase work.

Pant said staff are on a timeline: the town expects consultant-refined data on committed versus used flow in June, and Westborough and Shrewsbury plan to meet with the treatment plant board to discuss options for increasing capacity or changing flow-management approaches. Potential long-term options include reducing committed allocations by reconciling permit records, repairing/rehabilitating older sewer lines to reduce infiltration (which staff tied to the sewer-line rehabilitation grant discussed later in the meeting) and exploring the feasibility of reusing treated water within town to reduce discharge to the Assabet River.

Committee members also asked procedural questions: whether the fee will be taxed (Pant said it will be billed like a utility, with no additional sales tax on the fee itself), whether wetlands protections are affected (Pant said the fee is solely based on impervious area and does not change wetlands regulation), and how residents will be notified (staff cited FAQs, social media, previous public meetings and targeted outreach through contacts such as EDC director Mark).

The discussion concluded with staff noting outreach and education plans, that credits will be applied after a submission/review process and that further public information will follow as the town prepares to bill in July. The committee next moved to authorize letters of support for a downtown rotary study and a sewer-line rehabilitation grant that staff said would complement efforts to reduce inflow and improve system capacity.

The select board regulation establishing the moratorium and the stormwater utility details are available from DPW; staff said they will address a regulatory footnote error (monthly vs. quarterly language) and provide a consultant-produced data table in June for committee review.