Ayer Planning Board unanimously approves 11-unit mixed-use building at 63 Main Street

AYER -- March 24, 2026, Ayer Planning Board clears 11-unit mixed-use building at 63 Main Street with affordable unit and shared parking deal. The board voted 5-0 on three separate motions Tuesday, approving the site plan, a shared parking special permit, and an invocation of inclusionary housing authority, for a four-story building proposed by applicant Robert DiPiro on a 4,171-square-foot vacant lot in the Downtown Park Street form-based code district. One of the 11 apartments will be deed-restricted as affordable in perpetuity, marketed at 80 percent of area median income, and must receive state LIP and LAU designation before building permits issue; board members pressed DiPiro to work with the town's affordable housing committee to also make the unit accessible to wheelchair users, with Town Planner Danny Ruiz noting the precedent set at 14 Washington Street. Six shared parking spaces at nearby Depot Square substitute for all on-site parking, with a special condition requiring the applicant to return to the board within 60 days if that arrangement changes. The board also stamped an approval-not-required plan creating the 3.36-acre senior center lot off Bishop Road and approved a landscape modification at 12 Willow Road allowing nine pin oaks and a to-be-specified slope seed mix to replace a more complex hillside stabilization scheme.