Weston Planning Board Continues All Three Active Residential Projects Amid Design Disputes

WESTON — January 4, 2023 — Weston Planning Board continues three contested residential projects, citing design, energy, and environmental concerns. At the January 4 meeting, Chair Leslie Glynn and the four-member board pressed applicants on landscaping ratios, window design, setbacks, and sustainability across projects at 297 Meadowbrook Road, 645 Wellesley Street, and 21 Chestnut Street. At 21 Chestnut Street, architect Marcus Kleistein presented a new 6,938-square-foot federal-style house — a 23 percent reduction in footprint from the previously approved plan — with a HERS rating of 52, but Glynn pushed back: "This could be the Marcus Kleistein signature — your house for the future," she said, urging the team toward net-zero performance. Board member Adrienne Giske flagged a shortfall between 690 caliper inches of removed trees and an estimated 500 caliper inches proposed for replanting on the historically significant Chestnut Street lot. The 645 Wellesley Street application — a colonial design sitting within two feet and three inches of both side setbacks at 93 feet in length — was told by Glynn it was "very, very far from what we would want to see." All three projects were continued to either January 18 or February 1.