Billerica ZBA Grants Four Variances, Including Court-Remanded Cook Street Lot Split

ZBA · Meeting of March 18, 2026

Billerica's Zoning Board of Appeals granted four variances and special permits at its March 18 meeting and signed off on a final subdivision plan for the Craftsman Village 40B affordable housing development. The board voted unanimously to grant a 25-square-foot lot-area variance to John T. and Melissa A. Conway of 36 Rogers Street, whose construction loan from Rockland Trust had been blocked by a title defect rooted in a 1963 probate law; attorney Stephen Lentini described the ask as "a variance of 25 square feet on a 40,000 square foot zoning piece of property" needed solely to clear the financing.

The board also unanimously approved a special permit for Middlesex Gas to restore a truck repair bay at 9 Dunham Road, and unanimously granted front-setback relief for an attached garage at 7 Child Lane. In the most contested action, the board voted 4-1 to grant a two-lot split variance at 63 Cook Street to Diane Culbert, also known as Diane M. Sullivan — a case remanded from Middlesex Superior Court, docket 2481-CV-01880, after a prior reconsideration vote was taken without legally required public notice to abutters and the applicant; attorney Christopher Alton of Blackmon, Brielle, Hapenny and Silverstein argued the lots, at roughly 17,000 and 32,000 square feet, are "customary and normal for the other lot sizes in the neighborhood." A pool variance request for 6 Tamarack Street was continued to April 15.

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Source: the ZBA meeting of March 18, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.