<div>At their latest meeting, the Hudson Zoning Board of Adjustment received a confusing rehearing request regarding a recent appeal denial for a sober house in a residential zone at 12-14 Gambia Street.“There will be no undue administrative burden upon the the town allowing this present use as a sober house,” said Zoning Administrator, Chris Sullivan, reading from the property owners appeal letter, which argued Hudson was failing to “provide an accommodation to a disabled individual.”The property owners were not at the meeting to make their case before the Zoning Board, and it was unclear what the appeal was supposed to address. The original case involved the appeal of a cease-and-desist letter from the town asking the Gambia Street facility to stop operations. Normal town procedure would require a sober house in a residential zone to apply for a variance before opening.“They were requesting a rehearing for what we thought was an administrative decision request, but this is not,” said Sullivan. “This is for the variance they never applied for.”Alternate, Zachary McDonough, admitted to being “confused at that whole point,” referring to the appeal letter, something ZBA Chair, Gary Daddario, agreed with.“The Board has the ability to give a reasonable accommodation through the variance process,” explained the Selectmen Liaison. “In my opinion, you can’t ask for a rehearing for a particular item outside of a variance, and with nobody here to speak to that, I don’t think the Board has to accept this. I don’t understand really what’s in front of us.”Sullivan wrote the original cease-and-desist letter and was involved in the only meeting where the merits of that decision were seriously argued before the ZBA.“The only hearing that we’ve had and the only decision that this Board has made to this point has been to uphold the Zoning Administrator’s initial determination,” said Daddario. “They were cited for the violation, they appealed that citation, we were asked to review that situation, and we issued a decision. That decision was that we thought that the issuance of the violation was proper.”While there was extensive opposition from neighbors to the sober house, the issue of reasonable accommodation tied to variance requests was never addressed.“This an appeal to the appeal,” concluded Board member, Tristan Dion, though he agreed that it did not seem to read like that.“I don’t know of new evidence coming forward that wasn’t available at the first hearing, I don’t think we made any error of law making the only decision that we’ve made so far,” said Daddario.Unable to determine what was being appealed and without anyone present to explain the application, the Zoning Board unanimously voted not to accept the appeal application. Daddario noted that the owners of 12-14 Gambia St. would still be within their rights to ask for a variance hearing sometime in the future.</div>

Mountain View, CA

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Zoning Board Confused by Sober House Appeal Request

At their latest meeting, the Hudson Zoning Board of Adjustment received a confusing rehearing request regarding a recent appeal denial for a sober house in a residential zone at 12-14 Gambia Street. “There will be no undue administrative burden upon the the town allowing this present use as a sober...