West Newbury Planning Board certifies pickleball courts complete, clears path to opening

Planning Board · Meeting of July 21, 2026

West Newbury Planning Board votes to open new pickleball courts and advances steep-slope zoning. The board voted 4-0 Tuesday to certify the Action Cove pickleball courts as complete per the approved site plan, clearing the way for a ribbon-cutting after the courts had been blocked off with plywood pending the decision. Clerk Raymond A.

Cook moved the certificate of completion "based on the documents received from Williams and Spiragis affirming approval from the Conservation Commission and from Building Commissioner Sam Joslin affirming completion of the work." The board also reviewed Cook's draft zoning bylaw language that would protect natural slopes exceeding 20 percent gradient and prohibit construction of new earthworks creating contiguous steep-slope areas of half an acre or more — a threshold Cook said aligns with the town's existing subdivision regulations and falls in the middle of the range used by other Massachusetts communities. Cook will meet with Joslin before bringing revised language back to the board for a future public hearing. CPC Representative Deborah R.

Hamilton, who serves as treasurer of the now-closed All Saints Episcopal Church, briefed the board on a proposal by the Newburyport-based Resettlement Partnership to convert St. John's Hall into four to six housing units for Afghan refugees, a project currently before the Board of Health over a cross-street septic plan.

In the full story:

• Background and stakes
• The question before the body
• Substantive content
• The deliberation
• Procedural steps and outcome
• Implications and what is next
• The complete report — 3,000 words

Source: the Planning Board meeting of July 21, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.