School Cost, Bus Concerns Raised on Westborough Woods

A proposed 250-unit housing project on Route 9 near Otis Street would cost Westborough “probably $1.5 to $2 million additional cost per year to educate the kids,” school committee Chairman Ilyse Levine-Kanji says.

The Westborough Zoning Board of Appeals’ public hearing on 346 Turnpike Road LLC's request for a comprehensive permit resumes at 7:45 p.m. Feb. 11 in Forbes Municipal Building Room 24. The hearing opened on Jan. 14.

The 314,230-square-foot Westborough Woods project proposed for 346 Turnpike Road consists of 250 rental apartments, of which 62 would be affordable; a 6,234-square-foot clubhouse with outdoor swimming pool; and a 5,234-square-foot retail building, according to the Sept. 7 Certificate of the state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs on the Environmental Notification Form.

Both the town and the school board have expressed concerns to the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.

Levine-Kanji told the school board last week that having members attend the Feb. 11 meeting would be worthwhile.

Westborough Woods would add about 120 students to the school district, “a 3 percent increase in our student population,” she said.

Vice Chairman Stephen Doret said that he understood the site was accessible only from Route 9 east, and “that makes it a requirement that a school bus travel on Route 9 west” to Route 20 and back.

Officials should seek “access from another street in Westborough so school buses won’t have to travel on Route 9,” Doret said.

School Superintendent Marianne O’Connor said children residing at Westborough Woods face “a longer bus ride than a typical student.”

Space isn’t available at the nearest neighborhood school, the Armstrong Elementary School, O’Connor said.

The Fales Elementary School would be the “most logical place” to educate the children, she said. However, they would “go all the way from the west end of Westborough to Fales,” she said.