Planning Board Adopts Town Center Design Guidelines, Fills Vacancy Process

NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH — June 1, 2026 — North Attleborough Planning Board unanimously adopts town center design guidelines and opens vacancy process after member resignation. The board voted 4-0 at its June 1 meeting to adopt guidelines giving it formal design-review authority over private development in the town center district, a power unlocked by a zoning update approved at the recent Annual Town Meeting. Member Justin Alexander's resignation opened an immediate seat; a joint Planning Board-Select Board interview session is tentatively set for June 22, with the appointment running only until the next spring election, when two seats will appear on the ballot. The board continued the 158 Washington Street public hearing to August 13 and extended its decision deadline to September 21, citing the vacancy and a conflict of interest by member Belcher that left the board short of the votes needed to act. The chair also addressed residents who had arrived after a Facebook post misstated what Article 31 — a failed town meeting measure that would have removed the 2,400-square-foot home-size cap in the 55-plus senior overlay district — would have meant for the already-permitted Toll Brothers Heather Hill development, saying "their project staying as is" and the bylaw change "was something completely separate from them."