A week after blasting began, the Lincoln Hill development was brought back to the Planning Board’s attention last night. This time, a company associated with the development raised a concern over oversized vehicles. The Town Planner & Land Use Director also showed a video of the blasting, saying he wanted the board members to be informed because there have been a lot of resident concerns.
The Planning Board met on Tuesday, Jan. 13th. Shortly after the meeting began, the Town Planner & Land Use Director explained that he had been contacted by the company which said oversized vehicles were having difficulty turning from Washington Street onto Highland Avenue. There had been cases of vehicles getting stuck and vehicles had driven over a property or two.
The Police Chief attended the meeting and said he had gone out to take measurements. He said the oversized vehicles may be able to use Coolidge Road. It was stated that these oversized vehicles are not in use all the time. There was no vote, but the discussion ended with the consensus that this would come up at a meeting in two weeks. This will be at a public meeting, not a public hearing.
One of the Planning Board members said they were in favor of going on the best path forward for the next two weeks, then discussing the change at a meeting where the public could also share points they wanted to be considered.
Blasting Video. As for the blasting, the Town Planner & Land Use Director shared a video of a blast near the end of the meeting. He said the video was taken shortly after 11 am that day. He had gone out to see the blast with other town employees and the Planning Board chair also joined the group. We watched from Zoom and it was a little difficult to see the video load, though there was a blast sound and smoke.
Notifications. The Town Planner & Land Use Director also explained the process for alerting residents about the blasts.
Two Residents Spoke. We watched two residents speak before we left the meeting, near the end. One raised a point about the oversized vehicles. The second resident spoke about the company not following up on a point with her after the community meeting, saying it was important that people did what they said they would given the aggravation with the overall process.
Stratton Hill. Another point came from a Planning Board member, who questioned why there weren’t email notifications about blasting for the Stratton Hill project. She asked to be to placed on the Lincoln Hill email notification list.
Approved in October
It was last October when the Planning Board approved the site plan for the Lincoln Hill OSRD, a development of 34 condominiums. This followed a public hearing process that upset many neighbors and residents. Here is the site plan approval decision dated Oct. 14, 2025.
OSRD stands for Open Space & Residential Development. Some towns have adopted OSRD zoning regulations to encourage open space preservation.
Here, a property owner-developer collaboration put together 13.67 acres off Groton Harvard Road and High Street, a unique area containing hill and ledge, near downtown Ayer. It’s just a walk to the MBTA. According to the site plan approval, two of the parcels had vacant single-family homes; the others were vacant and undeveloped.
While this area was zoned A2 residential – so single-family and duplexes – the applicants had enough land to propose an OSRD development – and qualify for the maximum building density by leaving more than 50 percent open.
As approved, about 8 acres of open space will be preserved, with a little over an acre going to stormwater drainage construction. The site plan approval also describes steps for creating an open space Conservation Restriction, which the Ayer Conservation Commission could hold.
The 34 condos – including three affordable units – will be built across the rest of the land. To build requires blasting because of the ledge.
As a resident, this has been a complicated permitting process to follow. For example, as one of the conditions, the Planning Board set a requirement that the developer must reconstruct a sidewalk on Winthrop Street, along the frontage of the Nashoba Park Assisted Living building.
And to support this project, the Ayer Planning Board also considered an entirely separate application involving a parking lot relocation near the assisted living center. This site plan was approved on Sept. 23, 2025.
Planning Board Conditions on the OSRD Development
Before work began last Wednesday (Jan. 7th), the developer was required to complete steps with the Ayer Fire Department. The Planning Board also set other conditions, including (but not limited to):
- The developer must submit weekly blasting reports.
- Hours are limited to 8 am to 3 pm, Monday through Friday.
- No blasting is allowed on weekends or holidays.
- Hold a community meeting with abutters before the blasting work began.
Community Meeting Process
While the developer is not allowed to blast on holidays, nearby residents said they spent their holidays thinking about the blasting. Residents say they were notified about the community meeting in the final days before Christmas. The developer scheduled this meeting for Dec. 30th at Town Hall – the Tuesday night between Christmas and New Year’s.
We Invite Residents to Contact Ayer News
Please contact us if you want to share your feedback about Ayer public meetings. We started this as a community news project in October and hope to publish through 2026. If you have an interest, we may invite other residents to write stories in the future.
Editor’s Note
Jan. 15th Update: we originally wrote “Land Use Director,” and a resident contacted us to say the professional was the planner; the land use part was a responsibility. We have updated this to,“Town Planner & Land Use Director” on Jan. 15th. This professional was hired as the town planner. On June 3, 2025, this professional was named Land Use Director, which came with additional compensation. We checked his contract on the town website and it reads, “Town Planner-Land Use Director.”