Lexington Planning Board Extends Hartwell Lab Permit, Maps Summer Zoning Work

LEXINGTON -- May 28, 2025, Lexington Planning Board unanimously extends a stalled lab-building permit and sets a summer agenda anchored by a looming subdivision filing wave. The board voted 5-0 at its May 28 Zoom meeting to extend the 2020 site-plan review and special permit for 135 Hartwell Place through August 26, 2027, after applicant representative Mr. Dulac cited a 36.2 percent lab vacancy rate in the suburban Boston market and a 31 percent vacancy rate across the greater Boston market's roughly 56 million square feet of lab space. Board Member Charles Hornig noted a recent state law had already automatically extended the permit, and Associate Member Michael Leon asked that the vote language reflect the action as an affirmation of the statutory extension rather than a new grant. Planning Director Abby McCabe warned that up to 20 definitive subdivision applications, the downstream result of a preliminary filing rush earlier this year, are expected to arrive in August and September, driving an urgent review of both the Planning Board's zoning regulations and the town's outdated subdivision regulations. Hornig pressed the board to begin drafting an accessory dwelling unit bylaw update before summer's end, calling the current conflict between Lexington's zoning text and permissive state law "very confusing to people."