Douglas ZBA Accepts Shady Lane Withdrawal, Pushes for Multi-Board Permit Coordination

DOUGLAS — December 3, 2025 — Douglas Zoning Board accepts permit withdrawal, debates inter-board coordination overhaul. The Douglas Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously at its December 3 meeting to accept a withdrawal without prejudice of a special-permit application from Pensco Trust Company LLC for a proposed single-family home at 48 Shady Lane, with applicant representative Douglas Ward saying the Wards plan to revise their layout and refile for the January 2026 agenda. The board then spent the bulk of its session with Conservation Agent Brandon Fanoff, Conservation Commission member Jim Horne, and Board of Health Title 5 Agent Steve Donatelli hashing out why applicants on complicated lots near wetlands sometimes collect conflicting approvals from different boards — forcing costly re-filings and abutter re-notifications. Members discussed requiring concurrent filing with all relevant boards as a condition on the ZBA's own application form, using the town's OpenGov portal to flag inter-board dependencies in real time, and consulting town counsel on whether concurrent filing can be made mandatory. The board also heard an unresolved dispute from North Brown LLC developer Tim over whether street lights installed in 2017 match the approved plan of record — a single revised sheet, dated November 2010, that the developer says was never transmitted to him — alongside a $300,000 performance bond estimated by peer-review engineer Haley Ward that remains under town-counsel review.