Charlton Planning Board splits battery storage permit, denies two land use applications

CHARLTON — February 19, 2025 — Charlton Planning Board splits a battery storage special permit and denies two applications in unanimous votes. The board approved both a new site plan for Lot G and a modified permit for Lot F of a Griffin Road battery energy storage project developed by ZP Battery Development Company LLC, separating what had been a single combined approval covering both roughly 4,948-kilowatt facilities to satisfy project financing requirements; Graves Engineering found no material changes beyond the administrative split. The board also voted unanimously to deny without prejudice the GM Properties LLC site plan for The Villages, a multifamily proposal at 35 North Main Street that has been stalled since February 2024 while the Conservation Commission is deadlocked over a perennial-versus-intermittent stream determination tied to a state drought declaration. In a third unanimous denial, the board rejected an Approval Not Required endorsement from CR Hanson Construction for a Highland Road parcel after town special counsel Jonathan Silverstein concluded in a February 7 memo that the applicant's GPS-based survey data could not override a 1996 recorded subdivision plan explicitly referenced in the deed, leaving the boundary dispute for Land Court to resolve.