Middleton Planning Board Opens Hearing on First Zoning Overhaul in Three Decades

MIDDLETON -- February 11, 2026, Middleton Planning Board opens public hearing on first comprehensive zoning rewrite in roughly 30 years. The board, assisted by consultants Amy and Noor from planning firm BHB and Town Planner Anna, worked through the first five sections of a 130-page redlined bylaw at the February 11 meeting at Fuller Meadows School, approving the session's four agenda items unanimously. The most contested proposal, reducing the front-yard setback on North Main Street from 100 feet measured from the street centerline to 30 feet from the lot line, was pulled from the package after the chair warned it "would lead developers to pack things closer to the highway" and could sink the broader update at town meeting; BHB was directed to calculate an equivalent lot-line measurement for a future vote. The board also endorsed by-right parking changes including shifting restaurant minimums from a square-footage basis to one space per three seats, a substantial increase from the current effective rate of one space per 15 seats, and accepted a written public comment from Brendan Labreck of 38 East Street recommending stronger lot-width language to limit narrow flag-lot configurations. The public hearing continues at the March Planning Board meeting, where Sections 6 through 11 of the bylaw will be reviewed.