2026-10-27 - Special Town Meeting

Summary

Built from the posted agenda only; no minutes or video recorded yet.

• Special Town Meeting: amended FY27 budget (about $941K, incl. fire station note interest), high school turf field and activity bus, $1.4M Water Street culvert (likely amended to stabilization), data center permit moratorium, inclusionary zoning and mall height zoning, staffing and building studies, and two citizen petitions (Flock cameras; student activity account review).

Agenda

Tuesday, October 27, 2026, 6-9 PM, Auburn High School Auditorium.

Citizen guide: Special Town Meeting, October 27, 2026

At a glance

• When and where: Tuesday, October 27, 2026, 6:00 PM, Auburn High School Auditorium. The Town Manager held a pre-Town Meeting question session on October 19 for Town Meeting members: 2026-10-19 - Pre-Town Meeting.
• Who votes: Auburn uses a Representative Town Meeting of 120 members from the precincts. Other residents can attend and watch.
• Kind of meeting: a Special Town Meeting on a warrant of at least 23 articles (numbers 1 to 23; the pre-meeting did not describe Articles 1, 8 and 9).
• Money at stake: about $941,000 in the amended FY27 budget (Article 2); roughly $800,000 of other articles from free cash (the unspent surplus certified each year by the state, about $8.3 million remaining before these articles); $150,000 reallocated for the turf field plus the $70,000 bus; $99,000 and $170,000 from sewer retained earnings; ambulance receipts for fire jackets; and a $1.4 million culvert that staff expect to be funded from stabilization.
• Most discussion at the pre-meeting: Article 2 (fire station interest and the amended budget), the turf field (Articles 3 to 6), the data center moratorium (Article 20), the Water Street culvert (Article 21), and the two citizen petitions (Articles 22 and 23).
• Tax impact: staff said Article 2 causes no tax increase beyond the fire station note interest, estimated at $70 to $75 on the average single-family bill; the rest comes from state aid, new growth and ambulance receipts.
• Early voting: early voting for the Nov 3 state election runs Oct 21-30 at Town Hall.

How the night works

• Articles are taken in order. For each, a motion is made, there is discussion, then a vote. Articles can be amended on the floor, or a member can move to split the question (for example, to separate lines of the budget article).
• Votes needed: the pre-meeting did not state them. Inferred from general Massachusetts law (not from the warrant): budget and free cash appropriations need a majority; zoning bylaw changes (Articles 14, 15 and 20) need two-thirds; borrowing and spending from stabilization need two-thirds. Confirm against the warrant and the moderator's announcements.
• Citizen petitions (Articles 22 and 23) get a short presentation by the petitioner.
• Recommendations: the Select Board recommended Article 2 4-0 (from earlier Select Board materials). The Planning Board gave the three zoning articles a favorable recommendation (earlier materials). For Article 21 the Select Board prefers stabilization over borrowing. Finance Committee recommendations were not stated at the pre-meeting.
• The Town Manager does not read articles aloud; the warrant is on the town website.

The articles in plain language

Articles are numbered as stated at the pre-meeting; where the captions are unclear the item is marked.

Money articles

• Article 2, amended FY27 budget (about $941,000). Adds money to this year's budget. The first line raises short-term interest from a $75,000 placeholder to about $534,680 after the town borrowed $14 million for the fire station in June. Other lines: human resources advertising, the veterans agent contract shared with Southbridge, postage, Town Hall building maintenance (the back ramp for accessibility), heating and fuel, school hires, and the snow and ice deficit ($445,674 total, less $257,262 winter recovery assistance, net $188,411). A yes vote adds these amounts to FY27 spending. Staff say the items replace transfers that used to be made quietly from a contingency account. See Amended FY27 Budget, New Fire Station at 10 Prospect Street and Town Finance Oversight.
• Articles 3, 4, 5 and 6, high school field and bus. Reallocate previously set-aside capital money (including a Binmar school parking lot repaving allocation) toward a new high school turf field, plus $70,000 for an accessible activity bus (Article 5 is believed to be the bus, but the pre-meeting never described it). The $150,000 down payment was already borrowed; a ballpark for a new field is about $650,000 with no formal estimate. See High School All-Purpose Field and Accessible Activity Bus.
• Article 7, economic development strategic plan ($75,000). Consultant-led plan, the first since 2017. See Economic Development Strategic Plan.
• Articles 8 and 9: not described at the pre-meeting; no questions asked. Unknown.
• Article 10, staffing and operational study ($70,000 free cash). Via the Collins Center; excludes the fire department. See Town Staffing Study.
• Article 11, town building study ($80,000 free cash). All town and school buildings. See Town Building Condition Study.
• Article 12, police phone system ($35,000 free cash). Replaces an antiquated non-emergency system with a backup.
• Article 13, roadway improvement software ($20,000 free cash). Collects road condition data; vendor not chosen, contract terms unknown, town to own data.
• Article 16, easement at 15 Hard Scrabble Road. Lets the Select Board approve a drainage easement across the roadway so the property's storm water discharges directly instead of tying into the town system.
• Article 17, fire and rescue items from ambulance receipts. Includes about 60 waterproof rescue jackets (stated as about $29,000; the figure may be misheard).
• Article 18, sewer truck ($99,000 sewer retained earnings) and the next article (likely 19), Pinrock pump station replacement pump ($170,000 sewer retained earnings). See Sewer Projects.
• Article 21, Water Street culvert replacement ($1.4 million). Half the road is closed now. Staff expect a floor amendment to pay from stabilization instead of borrowing. See Water Street Culvert Replacement.

Zoning

• Article 14, inclusionary zoning. Developments of 10 or more units must include affordable units. Auburn is at 9.92% and needs seven units to reach the 10% safe harbor from 40B projects. See Inclusionary Zoning and 40B Safe Harbor.
• Article 15, regional mall overlay district. Fixes a height cap (35 ft) that conflicts with higher heights allowed in the highway business district. See Mall Overlay District Height.
• Article 20, one-year moratorium on building permits for electronic data storage projects. See Data Center Moratorium.

Citizen petitions

• Article 22, Flock cameras. Bars the town from contracts or pilots with Flock and asks that Flock return all data. Non-binding by the petitioner's description; the contract is already canceled and cameras removed at Flock's cost. See Flock Camera Contract.
• Article 23, student activity accounts review (up to $75,000). See Student Activity Accounts Review.

Select Board recommendations (October 13, 2026 meeting)

From the 2026-10-13 - Select Board auto-captions (voice votes; tallies mostly not audible):

• Articles 3, 4, 5, 6 (field and bus): recommended approval. Article 5 is confirmed as the $70,000 accessible activity bus ($70,000 more from a state earmark). The project is still about $150,000 short.
• Article 10 (staffing study): recommended; town departments only.
• Article 11 (building study): the board deferred to the petitioner after first recommending.
• Article 13 (roadway software): recommended.
• Article 21 (Water Street culvert): recommended against as written (heard as 3-2), but would support paying from stabilization rather than borrowing; the chair was authorized to say so at Town Meeting.
• Article 22 (Flock petition): motion to not recommend; result not clearly audible.
• The board also discussed adding $150,000 to stabilization under another article (heard as Article 19).

Where this came from and caveats

• Source: the Oct 19 pre-Town Meeting session (auto-captions, speakers unlabeled) plus earlier Select Board materials. The printed warrant has not been checked word for word, so wording, article numbers, votes needed and dollar amounts may differ; no results are recorded because the meeting has not happened.
• Items from captions that may be garbled: Article 17 jacket amount, the Pinrock pump article number, Binmar school name, Article 5 content.
• Votes needed and funding fallbacks marked "inferred" come from general state law, not the warrant.

Quick-reference table

Notes: Article 1 was not discussed. See also Traffic Safety for other town items.

Source: town calendar, Select Board materials and the Oct 19 pre-Town Meeting video (retrieved 2026-10-21).