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.