Historic District Commission

The Billerica Historic Districts Commission administers the town's local historic districts under Chapter 40C of the General Laws, reviewing exterior changes, new construction and demolition within the districts and issuing certificates of appropriateness, non-applicability or hardship. Local districts were first studied by a Historic District Study Committee appointed by the selectmen after Article 50 of the 1974 Town Meeting, made up of Historical Commission members Dr. Charles E. Stearns (chairman), Robert E. Valyou and Margaret H. Ingraham; it was listed each year until the late 1980s without bringing forward a district. In 1988 the selectmen appointed a new study committee, chaired by David A. Fitch, whose Historic Districts By-Law was adopted by the spring 1990 Town Meeting.

The by-law established three districts: the Town Center Historic District around Billerica Center and the Common, the Billerica Mills Historic District in North Billerica, and the Corner Historic District. The Commission was appointed and organized in the fall of 1990 and held its first scheduled meeting on January 3, 1991. It has seven regular members appointed by the selectmen for three-year terms (including residents or property owners in a district, a lawyer, and nominees of the Billerica Historical Society, the Board of Realtors and architects' societies) plus alternates, with the Town Planner as a non-voting ex-officio member. Richard H. Young II was chairman for most of its first two decades, followed by Michael J. Rea Jr., John J. McKenna and David Gagliardi. Rows here include alternate members.