Hot dog decision delayed

The Zoning Board of Appeals at 5:30 today will continue a public hearing on an appeal regarding Miss Patsy’s Hot Dog stand on the corner of Randolph Road and South Main Street. This appeal, by Christopher Parslow, seeks to overturn a ruling made by the Zoning Enforcement Officer, Bruce Driska, in November of 2008, that said that the Hot Dog restaurant was permitted to operate in a residential zone.

The public hearing on this issue began at the February 5th meeting but was interrupted because the ZBA lost quorum when one of the members was called away. It was then scheduled for the March 5th meeting but was postponed because not enough of the ZBA members who had heard the February 5th public testimony could attend on March 5th. The ZBA is now scheduled to continue the public hearing at its meeting tomorrow, at 5:30 in Council Chambers.

Unfortunately for those hoping for a resolution of the dispute, the ZBA will be unable to issue a ruling on this issue until its May 7th meeting. This is because some of the ZBA members have been unable so far to listen to the digital audio files of the testimony given at the February 5th meeting. Thus, although the public hearing will be closed after all members of the public have spoken, the decision will be further delayed.

The history of the zoning dispute regarding Miss Patsy's Hot Dog stand already goes back several years. Part of that history includes an earlier ZBA decision which had allowed Miss Patsy's to operate on a lot on Randolph Road. After that decision was overturned by the Superior and Appellate courts, Miss Patsy's moved to an adjacent lot, on South Main Street. The November Zoning Enforcement Officer ruling under appeal was that since the South Main Lot already is occupied by a commercial garage (an approved, nonconforming use), the hotdog stand could remain there.

Opponents of the hotdog stand insist that the Superior Court judgment explicitly forbids the operation on either lot, and that the ZBA and town officials are refusing to enforce the zoning code on the books. The correspondence, rulings by the ZEO and the courts are all available here.

With this current appeal, the ZBA is being asked to revisit a case in which their previous ruling was rejected by the Superior Court. The repeated lack of a quorum of ZBA members who are present at the meetings, and prepared for them, has delayed the resolution of this appeal.