Grafton Zoning Board Strips Salt Ban, Advances 200-Unit 40B Decision to July Vote

Zoning Board · Meeting of June 25, 2026

Grafton Zoning Board strips salt ban and reshapes key conditions on 200-unit 40B apartment project. The board voted 5-0 to continue case number 910 to July 9 at 5 p.m. after working through contested Section D conditions during the June 25 session. Attorney Jason Panos, representing the applicant team, argued successfully that a draft condition requiring calcium magnesium acetate as an alternative to road salt had no basis in the town's own zoning bylaw or DEP regulations under 310 CMR 22; Member Peter Adams corroborated that the product costs as much as $3,900 per metric ton in bulk — compared with roughly $64 per ton for conventional road salt — and is effectively unavailable commercially in usable quantities.

The board also amended its vernal pool study condition (D6) to trigger on occupancy of "the final apartment building" rather than "an apartment building," agreed to require two of the eight three-bedroom townhouse units to be designated affordable, and added phasing language intended to prevent a recurrence of a prior local 40B in which affordable units were never delivered.

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• Who Was There
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Source: the Zoning Board meeting of June 25, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.