Weston ZBA Unanimously Denies Accessory Apartment Permit at 154 Church Street

WESTON — March 31, 2022 — Weston ZBA unanimously rejects accessory apartment petition at 154 Church Street, upholding a 2003 Planning Board condition. The three-member board — Chair Jane Carlson, Winifred Lieb, and Natalie Sawyer — voted 3-0 on each of three motions in the continuation of a hearing filed by petitioner Joan Ellen Prichard, who sought to convert a storage building on the property into an accessory apartment. Town planner Nima told the board the Planning Board had originally imposed Condition 12 in a 2003 Certificate of Action Site Plan Approval because the building was presented solely as a storage shed for a construction business, and that nothing about the property had changed when the board declined to amend the certificate in December 2021. Sawyer's prevailing motion held that it "would be inappropriate to issue a special permit that is directly contrary to" the continuing restriction, a position all three members endorsed. The board also took no further action on petitioner requests seeking declarations that the ZBA is the sole authority over accessory apartment permits, and separately denied a request to nullify Condition 12 outright as an untimely appeal outside its jurisdiction.