Charlton Planning Board Continues Villages Multi-Family Hearing, Flags Wetlands Conflict

CHARLTON -- January 7, 2026, Charlton Planning Board continues four public hearings and votes unanimously on all business at a lengthy January 7 session. The most contentious item was the second submittal for GM Properties LLC's 33-unit multi-family Villages development at 35 North Main Street, which has contracted from 50 units since filing in June 2024 and now shows 99 parking spaces and added sidewalks throughout, but still faces unresolved Conservation Commission review and a Sewer Commission capacity moratorium potentially running through August 2026. Chair Bill Fontaine acknowledged the board had been slow to surface the central concern, that construction falls largely within the 100-foot wetlands buffer of a perennial stream, with roughly half the units within the 50-foot buffer, telling outside counsel Joshua Lee Smith, "That's certainly a bad precedent for planning and zoning to allow such encroachment into the buffer zone." The hearing was continued to February 18. Separately, the board unanimously approved an Approval-Not-Required plan creating eight lots on the former YMCA camp property off Daniels and Ramshorn roads, and granted a sidewalk waiver for a single-family home on North Main Street pending a town-wide sidewalk design funded by grant money and Amazon contributions.