Charlton Zoning Board Continues All Four Cases, Lacks Quorum to Grant Relief

CHARLTON — August 5, 2025 — Charlton's Zoning Board of Appeals continued all four petitions before it Tuesday to a September 2 makeup session after only three of five members appeared, one vote short of the four-fifths majority required to grant zoning relief under Massachusetts law. The board heard testimony on a teardown-and-rebuild special permit at 116 Nugget Drive, a lakeside cottage expansion at 48 Stephens Park Road, a variance for an unpermitted stone retaining wall at 78 Jennings Road, and a storage-shed special permit at 318 Selfridge Road. The most acute case involves the Jennings Road wall, roughly eight feet tall, built by a site contractor without a permit on or at the property line where a five-foot setback is required — a situation Zoning Enforcement Officer Kurt Meskis described by saying the builder "has been stuffed into a hard place because other people involved in this project have mucked it up." The homeowners cannot receive an occupancy permit until the variance is resolved. A written letter from an abutter opposing the 318 Selfridge Road shed petition, citing shared-driveway safety concerns, was read into the record; the petitioner denied the shed would affect the shared driveway.