Community Profile

Summary

Southborough is a small suburban town in eastern Massachusetts with a convenient commuting location fifteen miles east of Worcester, and twenty five miles west of Boston. Southborough covers 15.7 square miles Despite its rapid growth in the last two decades, it has managed to maintain many of its rural characteristics, which are highly valued by the people who live there.Two of the top reasons why many residents now move to Southborough are at odds: they like it because of its great commuting location as well as the rural character that it has retained. Both qualities make the town a very desirable place to live. It is a challenge to retain the rural characteristics of a town with this kind of development pressure. Southborough has historically been an agricultural community, and remnants of that history remain in its stone walls and small-town feel. 1892 saw the beginning of what was easily the most significant event to affect Southborough as the Boston Water Supply Department bought part of Fayville and flooded it to create a reservoir. The advent of the reservoir system brought many changes to Southborough. The Water Supply Department later claimed 2,000 acres of prime farmland by eminent domain. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Southborough experienced a population explosion whose momentum has continued through the present day, with continued construction of new development. According to regional population projections, this growth will continue as the millennial generation ages and begins to settle down. This influx of new residents could make preservation of open space even more challenging.