September 2025 Town Meeting in Brief

Town Meeting, Burlington’s legislative body, completed its third and final session of 2025 on October 6. Before the 126-member body were questions about finance, zoning, and bylaws. Here’s how your representatives voted on some of the key articles.

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Set 2025 Election Date - PASSED

The 2025 annual town election will be held on April 11.

Permit borrowing for Burlington High School ($333,269,880 - PASSED)

This project, which would give the town a new/renovated high school by around 2032, is pending a town-wide vote in a special election on November 15 (also funded by Town Meeting) to pass a debt exclusion. UPDATE: The debt exclusion vote failed and the School Department will need to return to the table to come up with a new plan..

Non-Emergency Lift Assist Fee - PASSED

The Fire Department can assess a fee to residential care facilities who call the Fire Department for help in lifting residents in non-emergency situations.

Amend Stormwater Bylaw - FAILED

For the second time, the Conservation Commission & Department attempted to separate out regulations from their bylaws. They say this would make it easier to make updates in the case of statutory changes or typographical errors while still keeping regulatory authority in the bylaw. Town Meeting was wary of ceding control to a smaller, appointed body and again voted no.

Capital Plan Report - PASSED

An attempt to plan more holistically for large-dollar projects in the future, this bylaw amendment will see that Town Meeting gets a full picture of the five-year capital plan prior to making funding decisions for large projects.

Increase Density & Height in a portion of the MBTA Communities Overlay - PASSED

Approved in 2024 by Town Meeting to comply with a new state law, the MBTA Communities Overlay is a zoning region where multifamily homes can be built without going through the special permitting process. Many properties in the overlay already have multi-family housing; the property in question, which sits on Middlesex Turnpike at Great Meadow Rd., contains office buildings from the mid-20th century that will be demolished and redeveloped into a 188-unit multi-family development with open space, a community room, and a walking path to connect with Great Meadow Rd.

Non-Binding Resolution regarding the ICE Field Office in Burlington - PASSED

This resolution was proposed as a way for Town Meeting to express its disapproval of "violations of local zoning and the inhumane treatment of detainees" at the Immigrations and Customs Enforce-ment facility, whose activity has increased over the last several months and which, according to detain-ees and lawmakers, is not following through on 2007 assertions that it would be used solely for short-term processing.