The Duxbury Planning Board faced a quiet room that quickly filled with tension as a lack of a voting quorum stalled several major projects during their Monday night session. Acting Chair Wayne Dennison opened the meeting by addressing the thin attendance of the board, noting that with only four members present, any recusal would effectively halt voting on special permits. This reality hit home early when Steve Gandt announced his need to recuse himself from a vote regarding the Glenway lot releases due to a conflict of interest involving the Holy Family Church. Gandt stated, I understood that the shity that we would be discussing tonight would involve a shy that would be that would be protective of holy family. And so for that reason I have seen that there was a conflict there. Dennison expressed frustration with the procedural hurdle, remarking, I have a preference to have a much more robust board to just vote on the administrative site plan as well.

The board moved to discuss the 774 Tremont Street expansion of Mayflower Cemetery, a project that has been in development for a decade. Pat Brennan, an engineer reviewing the site, reported that the applicant had satisfied most technical concerns, noting, At this point I'm satisfied with the responses and I don't have any issues with the plan at this point. An applicant identified as Bob stressed the urgency of the expansion, explaining that the cemetery is running out of burial spaces and will be out according to the historic figures by the end of 2027. Tag Carpenter questioned the environmental impact of the necessary land clearing, observing, It’s my understanding that it’s not actually a complete land clearing that you have an intention to retain some larger trees. Due to the quorum requirements for a special permit, the board was forced to continue the hearing. Motion Made by Wayne Dennison to continue the public hearing for the Mayflower Cemetery expansion, the administrative site plan review, and the land clearing and grading special permit until December 8th. Motion Passed 4-0

The most heated portion of the evening centered on a proposed Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) bylaw. Planning Director Matthew Heins noted that while Duxbury is looking at a West Newbury bylaw as a template, Duxbury’s hope is to limit it more. But there is kind of at least from the advice I've gotten so far, you know, we can't really prohibit it, you know, everywhere. Neighbors voiced significant safety concerns, with resident Stu Mackant warning of the risks to local infrastructure, saying, Our concern is and this is a statewide concern. Once there is a fire, they got to shut down Route Three. Fellow resident Chris added that the goal is not total prohibition but local control, stating, The intention isn't to lock these things out. It's just to give towns a little bit more control in a reasonable nature. Another resident, Rosa, highlighted the danger of proximity to homes, pointing out, the fact that the Braintree Fire Department was saying that it shouldn't be any closer than 2,000 feet from someone’s home.

As the board debated how much land to allocate for such facilities, Bri, a resident participating via Zoom, raised questions about land use calculations, asking, I wonder are we taking conservation into account... because we have a massive amount of conservation and that's unbuildable. Finance Director Mary MacKinnon clarified the tax implications, stating, Any land that is owned by the town of Duxbury is tax exempt. So we don't tax ourselves. Matthew Ray advocated for bringing in more community experts for future discussions, noting, We have a lot of people in the town that are have a lot of knowledge on these as well and it'd be great to get more people to provide unbiased input. The board concluded by briefly discussing zoning recodification efforts, which have stalled over formatting preferences like italicizing defined terms. Motion Made by Steve Gandt to adopt the minutes of November 10th, 2025, as amended as Tag has suggested. Motion Passed 4-0