Zoning Board continues landlocked lot variance hearing to March 19

Zoning Board · Meeting of February 23, 2026

Mendon Zoning Board continues landlocked lot variance hearing after precedent worries. Attorney David Burton, representing applicant David Fernandez, argued the board's bylaw definition of frontage does not require direct access to a street, citing Crosby v. Board of Appeals of Weston, 3 Mass.

App. Ct. 713, to support granting relief for a roughly three-acre parcel connected to Main Street only by a narrow strip of land created around 1950, before zoning existed. Board members worried a favorable ruling could set precedent for future subdivision, with one saying he'd "rather build one house, be done with it" than face repeated requests later.

The board approved its January 15 minutes unanimously, then voted to continue the variance hearing to March 19 at 6 p.m. so town counsel can review the cited case law against the specific bylaw language.

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