Townsend Planning Board advances contested Seaver Road subdivision to June hearing

TOWNSEND — May 11, 2026 — Townsend Planning Board continued two contested public hearings to June 8 and approved a peer-review budget extension for a disputed three-lot subdivision. Belvedere Capital, LLC, is seeking definitive subdivision approval for Zero Seaver Road, a 13-acre parcel with only 37 feet of legal frontage that would require a 560-foot road extension and cul-de-sac to create the lots; the board voted unanimously to approve budget Amendment 1 with Hoyle Tanner to fund continued peer review after the firm's initial review generated roughly 70 comments and exhausted the original budget. Abutter John Macita told the board the proposal "directly violates several specific laws" in the Subdivision Control Law and cited two prior Planning Board denials, in 1989 and 2020, of nearly identical plans, while Michael Seekman raised a procedural objection that abutters had not received required notification. On a separate matter, the board determined it cannot legally approve a pending modification request from the developer of the 22 West Meadow Road solar installation because it asks the board to waive vegetative screening conditions beyond its authority, and voted to allow the applicant to amend and resubmit the application rather than face outright denial.