Red Spring Road overlay zoning falls one vote short of advancing

MARLBOROUGH — December 18, 2023 — Marlborough's outgoing council leaves Red Spring Road overlay short of the supermajority needed to advance. On the 2022-2023 City Council's final night Dec. 18, an Urban Affairs and Housing Committee recommendation to approve a Red Spring Road overlay zoning amendment, reported by chair Kathleen D. Robey, picked up only seven votes on a motion to suspend the first reading and adopt the second — short of the supermajority required. Councilor Mark A. Oram recused as a direct abutter; Councilor Landers had cast the lone no in committee's 4-1 vote. The council unanimously accepted three outside awards — a $19,800 MassDEP recycling grant, a $5,063 Brigham Family Trust gift for the Youth Police Academy, and a $5,000 Ernest Gennetti bequest for the Council on Aging — and queued Mayor Arthur Vigeant's vetoes of the Geicus Lane public-way acceptance and an affordable-housing zoning amendment for the next agenda. Departing At-Large Councilor Samantha Perlman was honored; "Together, we moved the needle and made Marlborough a much stronger community," she said.