Weston ZBA Continues All Three Cases After Member Resigns Due to Illness

WESTON — August 24, 2023 — Weston's Zoning Board of Appeals continued all three cases on its August 24 agenda after a board member's sudden resignation due to serious illness left the board without the three members Massachusetts law requires. Chair Jane Carlson and member Stephen LaRock, the only two members present and constituting a quorum, voted 2-0 on each of three separate continuance motions, moving hearings for 225 Winter Street, 269 North Avenue, and 9-15 Riverside Road to September 5, 2023 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Town counsel George Pucci of KP Law advised the board not to formally open the hearings, warning that doing so would prematurely consume the "Mullen rule" procedural option available to any eventual third member — a safeguard critical on a three-member board where any special permit or appeal requires a unanimous vote to pass. ZBA assistant Valerie Geary was directed to immediately contact the board's three remaining members to confirm one could sit on September 5; September 12 was identified as the fallback date.