ZBA Continues Cell Tower Hearing to July 29

Zoning Board of Appeals · Meeting of July 15, 2026

Groton's Zoning Board of Appeals continued a variance hearing on a proposed 120-foot cell tower at 703 Chickpea Road to July 29, after two members turned out not to be sworn in for the new fiscal year, leaving the board short of the four-of-five quorum state law requires. Much of the session was spent parsing a newly amended Massachusetts variance statute that board member David said "completely changes the standards," replacing decades of case law with an undefined "practical difficulty" test and a new requirement to weigh housing-production benefits against neighborhood harm. One member asked "what will this mean in terms of our legal costs as rulings are challenged?"; another argued the board should "simply ignore that issue" when deciding cases.

The board also postponed a vote nominating Jay Prager for chairman, citing questions over unsworn members' voting rights, and approved its May 27 minutes while flagging that past minutes have missed the legally required 30-day posting window.

In the full story:

• Opening and Swearing-In Problem
• The Cell Tower Variance: 703 Chickpea Road
• The New Massachusetts Variance Law
• Board Reorganization: Chairman Nomination Postponed
• General Business: Common Street Withdrawal and Minutes Compliance
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,005 words

Source: the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting of July 15, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.