ZBA approves landscaping garage on Fern Street

The Zoning Board of Appeals took up a few requests for small variances at its meeting on Tuesday, all of which got the go-ahead with only minor adjustments.

The most-discussed case of the night was Vincent Mastroianni’s request to tear down an unoccupied residential building at 8 Fern St. and replace it with a garage for his landscaping business. 

The building, which is more than a century old, lies in a residential neighborhood in a commercial zone. Mastroianni asked the board for exceptions to zoning requirements regarding lot size, frontage and setback because of the unique size and shape of the lot, which has remained the same since at least 1906. 

A handful of neighbors expressed concerns about the parking shortage in the area as well as noise and traffic along the private way on which the lot is located. Four audience members said they were against granting the variances, and five were in favor.

The petitioner agreed to a set of conditions put forward by Ward 9 Councilor Robert G. Logan; those conditions require that the property comply with city noise and light restrictions, all vehicles and employees park onsite, and the owners put together a pest control plan before the current building is demolished.

Mastroianni’s team also went with a 10-foot setback, the minimum allowed in the zone, instead of the 5-foot setback initially requested following questions from ZBA associate member Sarah Hankins on the issue. Mastroianni’s team agreed to file site plans reflecting the change.

The board voted unanimously to grant the petition with the amendments.

Also appearing before the board: Welch’s, a national food company that recently moved its corporate headquarters to Waltham. Representatives asked for permission to install two slightly larger-than-allowed signs at its new 1601 Trapelo Road headquarters — a request the ZBA unanimously approved. 

City restrictions limit a commercial building’s main sign to no more than 5 feet tall and 100 square feet in total size and secondary signs to be no more than 18 square feet.

Welch’s wants two identical signs of 5 feet 2 inches measuring 54.25 square feet.

The board also unanimously approved a request from Nicole and Jeffrey Hines to add a garage to their personal home at 122 Greer St., and a request from Son Le for a six-month extension to the 2023 ZBA case regarding a property he purchased last year.