Four Town Meeting Committees formed in the spring are working to answer questions Saugus residents have asked for years, about the vacant schools, outdated rules, and a charter last reviewed over a decade ago. While the committees — the Zoning By-Law Review Committee, Vacant Schools Assessment Committee, Charter Review Committee, and the Town By-Law Review Committee — are taking proactive steps to be ready for the next Town Meeting come May 2027, their progress is varied. One committee has been waiting months for the town to answer basic records requests, while others have met multiple times and built out schedules to complete their work.
The Vacant Schools Assessment Committee is charged with determining whether the former Ballard, Evans, Oaklandvale, Lynnhurst, and Waybright schools have ever been professionally assessed. Some of these buildings have been closed for several years.
“Right now we are here to assess: Can these buildings be saved? Can they be fixed? Can they be rehabilitated?” Precinct 10 Town Meeting member Jenna Nuzzo, who chairs the committee, said. “I would love to get in all of the buildings to physically see where they stand.”
Nuzzo emphasized that the committee’s purpose is not to decide the fate of these vacant buildings, but to gather enough information to initiate the conversation, allowing the town to make that decision. The committee had its first meeting at the end of last month, where the focus was the two public records requests Nuzzo filed in April and June seeking expense information on the six vacant schools. Both remain unanswered.
“The residents of this town have been asking for years what’s going on with these buildings, and nobody has a single answer,” Nuzzo said. “We’re losing money just sitting on them, letting them rot away.”
Nuzzo said she has researched state grants other communities have used to repurpose vacant buildings, potentially into youth and recreation centers, or demolished to become open spaces, and wants to pursue the same funding for Saugus.
Similarly, the Charter Review Committee, which is reviewing the Town Charter for any updates or amendments, has had two meetings. According to Precinct 10 Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian, the group used those meetings to elect a chair and build out a schedule to evaluate possible changes or additional amendments to the charter before next year’s Town Meeting. Manoogian said the committee is now reviewing the first of the two articles within the Charter, covering the town’s legislative branch.
The Zoning By-Law Review Committee is determining whether the town’s zoning bylaws, which were last updated in January 2025, need an overhaul. That group has also met twice, according to Precinct 2 Town Meeting Member Peter Rossetti Jr. He said the committee’s work is shaped by state-level changes, including Governor Maura Healey’s push to add 200,000 housing units statewide. The town’s zoning bylaws say the moratorium on constructing multifamily dwellings of three or more units was adopted after an unexpected rise in construction, giving officials time to study the issue.
He pointed to Lynn’s success in getting roughly $100,000 from the state legislature to hire support for reassessing bylaws as a potential plan Saugus could pursue. “We’re hoping we can get to the point where we can go to Town Meeting and say, ‘We need to bring in a professional to evaluate and look at these bylaws,’” Rossetti said. The committee is currently drafting a survey to gauge what residents want to see in town, such as new development and open spaces.
The Town By-Law Review Committee is focused on identifying outdated or unnecessary rules rather than broad reform for its own sake, according to Precinct 2 Town Meeting member Matthew Parlante. “What I want to accomplish is simple: it’s taking a good, hard look at our bylaws and making sure it still makes sense for Saugus and its residents,” said Parlante, a Lieutenant in the Revere Fire Department. “There’s outdated language, fees, procedures, things we no longer use that just need to be cleaned up.”
For Parlante, the work extends beyond cleaning up outdated bylaws, however. It’s about whether Saugus residents feel represented at all. He said a representative government is supposed to reflect the community, and with just 50 town meeting members speaking for 27,000 residents, Parlante feels Saugus falls short of that.
At the end of the day, however, “People want to see things done, and they will keep talking until things get done,” Nuzzo said.
These are the upcoming meetings of the committees:
Town By-Law Review Committee: November 3rd at 6 p.m.
Charter Review Committee: October 28th at 6 p.m.
Vacant Schools Assessment Committee: October 29th at 6 p.m.
Zoning By-Law Review Committee: October 27th at 7 p.m.