Walpole Zoning Board of Adjustment Minutes

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Town Hall

7 pm

Role Call: Board present: Chair Tom Murray, Vice-Chair Pauline Barnes, Bill Sommers. Absent: Board members Clerk Dave Edkins and Shane O’Keefe. Alternates Don Sellarole and Myra Mansouri.

Call to Order: Mr. Murray called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm. Three members constitute a quorum, so the Board continued its meeting.

Review of Minutes: Minutes of October 2025. Mr. Sommers made a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Ms. Barnes seconded the motion and the motion carried. 

Old Business:

Recap: Joint meeting and ADUs Legislative Position and Walpole’s Zoning Ordinance.

Mr. Sommers received copies of the talking points made by Chair Murray and Vice-Chair Barnes at the joint meeting of the ZBA and the PB in October about ADUs. He also received a copy of that meeting’s minutes.

New Business: 

Applications: Mr. O’Keefe did not attend the meeting.

Zoning Board of Adjustment on the town’s web site

Using the big screen Ms. Barnes was able to get on the town’s web site and pulled up the information about the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Tonight’s and next month’s concern was and will be the “menu” on the left side of the page and the organization of that menu. The current web shows the first two items are “Meetings” and “Appeal of an Administrative Decision.”

Ms. Barnes posed the question if you were a citizen of Walpole what would you want to see first. While minutes are written for every meeting, Appeal of Administrative Decision would be a very special meeting and  something in which the Board rarely would be involved.. Ms. Barnes was also concerned about how does the board make it “user friendly” so townspeople know what the different applications (variances and special exceptions) were for and about. She thought the Board should start with definitions and explanations of the applications.

The Board will continue to tackle these questions at its December meeting.

Adjournment 

Mr. Murray made a motion to adjourn. Mr. Sommers seconded the motion and the motion carried. The time was 7:46 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilou Blaine

Recording Secretary

Tagged: Meeting Minutes, ZONING BOARD