ZBA Sends Josiah Smith Tavern Restaurant Permit Back Over Parking and Septic Disputes

WESTON -- March 24, 2026, Weston ZBA unanimously sends Woods restaurant applications back to the drawing board over parking, septic, and deed concerns. The three-member board, Chair Stephen J. Larocque, Jane Fisher Carlson, and Laura Mintz, allowed BU West LLC to withdraw without prejudice both a special permit for restaurant use and a variance for a monument sign at the Josiah Smith Tavern site, 358 Boston Post Road. Planning Board Chair Leslie Glynn told the board that 39 on-street parking spaces the applicant had been counting on had never been formally approved by any town body, and Planning Board member Al Aydelott noted the Board of Health had not yet reviewed the proposed occupancy against the site's septic capacity. Former Permanent Building Committee architect Adrienne Giske warned that the deed restriction between the Town of Weston and Historic New England limits signage to one small directional parking sign and a door sign, with any change requiring Select Board action, not a tenant application. The board separately voted unanimously to grant a special permit to Rafael Pieretti for a fourth-bay garage addition at 41 Summer Street, finding the addition architecturally consistent and no more encroaching on the side setback than the nonconforming garage approved in 1968.