Weston ZBA unanimously approves eight-foot fence variance on Possum Road

WESTON — June 6, 2022 — Weston's Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved a variance allowing an eight-foot fence at 10 Possum Road. Acting Chair Winifred Lee, along with members Natalie Sawyer and Sujit Suttoli, voted 3-0 at the June 6 Zoom meeting to grant the request from applicants James and Melinda Rabb, who argued that decades of lower-limb loss on a band of conifers along Doublet Hill Road had eliminated privacy and sound screening on their property. The board conditioned the approval on the fence being painted dark green and on no significant trees being removed during installation — conditions consistent with a request from neighbor Lee Shepard Johnson in a letter to Zoning Administrator Valerie Geary. Suttoli, who had questioned whether natural plantings could substitute for the variance, ultimately concluded the two-foot addition was appropriate given shading conditions and the elevated rear yard: "I don't think it troubles me to have an extra two feet in that place and kind of buried within there."