Zoning board approves revised 227 Maple site plan

Zoning Board · Meeting of July 23, 2026

Middleton's Zoning Board of Appeals approves a revised 227 Maple Street site plan and pushes a contested 200-unit Village Road housing hearing to September. Chair Richard Benevento's board voted unanimously to grant Site Plan Approval for 227 Maple and 0 Gregory streets, cutting parking to 37 spaces and adding a solar-powered warning sign to curb illegal exits onto Maple Street. For the Village Road comprehensive permit, Town Counsel Adam Costa told the board it has little room to shrink the roughly 200-unit project, warning "you will lose" 85 to 95 percent of cases that reach the state Housing Appeals Committee.

Residents of neighboring Ferncroft Tower, including Marie Simone and 84-year-old Ann DeGregorio, pressed the applicant on tree removal, lighting and blasting risk; DeGregorio said simply, "I don't have time for these trees to grow." The hearing continues September 3. The board also learned that new state budget-bill amendments to Chapter 40A replace the decades-old variance standard with a "practical difficulty" test and will require Middleton to rewrite its own nonconforming-use bylaw provisions.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 3,054 words

Source: the Zoning Board meeting of July 23, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.