Massachusetts Department of Transportation

And, you know, the same is true in many, many other states.

You know, Massachusetts, where you live, you know, the MassDOT, the Department of Transportation, got a federal grant to build an overpass for wildlife over the Mass Pike, which, you know, should be happening in the next couple of years here.

So this is a really exciting movement in this kind of hyper-polarized society we live in, right? This is one of those rare environmental issues that broadly unites people rather than dividing them.

And I think there's something really powerful in that.

Originally, the company had planned to begin in October.

It said its remaining approvals included a MassDOT aeronautics inspection and registration of the landing area, and it hoped to have them by year end.

Within a few days, a few developments have come through.

On October 19th, Westboro's special town meeting voted 510 to 13 for a bylaw restricting commercial drone launch pads.

The town manager said the bylaw focuses on ground level operations since the FAA regulates airspace.

It now needs approval from the state attorney's general's office and MassDOT's aeronautics division.

The state has 90 days to act.

That same day, 16 state legislators sent a letter to Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, and Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

The driver of the other vehicle treated for minor injuries.

This follows the deadly crash involving Massachusetts State Police Trooper Kevin Traynor in Linfield under similar circumstances this summer and comes, ironically enough, just as MassDOT officials are about to provide an update on the depravity of wrong-way driving prevention systems in the Commonwealth.

Changes are coming to the streets of Brockton.

I don't know why they changed it over.

The town of Westboro has made it clear that it wants to regulate any drones over its airspace, voting in favor of a bylaw to restrict unmanned aircraft.

Now in a letter to Amazon, MassDOT says the company needs approval before establishing a takeoff and landing site in Westboro or anywhere else in the state.

Residents there and elected officials in neighboring communities, including in Worcester, have shared their concerns around privacy, environmental impact, and noise, something that has been expressed in other parts of the country where Amazon delivery drones are already operational.

In Dudley Square, James Rojas, WBZ, Boston's News Radio.

Since the approval, the applicant has proceeded with the demolition of the existing structures on the property.

In addition to this work, Vanessa Associates continues to coordinate with MassDOT to secure the required DOT permit.

The applicant has indicated that concerns identified by their housing consultant who has been assisting with marketing efforts on the proposed development resulted in a determination that an adjustment to the density of the uses on site would be beneficial given market changes since the initial design of the project.

In adherence to the inclusionary zoning regulations, seven units would be designated affordable as opposed to the five units that were originally approved.

a little bit more space in the front for uh residential okay yep

um it's so gene given given the altered amount of um residential units proposed i mean and the mass dot access permit so has has that been applied for or filed yet and number two is that does that change materially i guess the traffic patterns and mass time will look at

According to VAI, it doesn't change materially the traffic pattern at all, and they've indicated they've applied to MassDOT, but that's still going through that process.

Peter, to speak to your point earlier, the And I know you're not calling it that, but that's why they're back before you for a modification according to the bylaw.

So that's much higher, I think, than what we would have expected in terms of the traffic analysis.

This was, I would say, one of the first facilities that was kind of put on line in the state MassDOT, because this was very new, they established certain parameters for how this analysis was to be undertaken.

Those parameters, they don't necessarily use them anymore.

They've kind of learned.