Healthy Waltham gets the go-ahead for final stages of new headquarters

The Zoning Board of Appeals this week granted Healthy Waltham permission to build an accessory cooler in its yard.

Healthy Waltham, a community pantry and nutrition education group, has been refitting its new headquarters at 123 Felton St. since 2023.  The group reports that construction on the building is about  90% complete.

Healthy Waltham previously operated out of the former Fitch School, which the city has recently mostly demolished.

Healthy Waltham visited the Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday to appeal a decision by Building Inspector Brian Bower. Bower ruled that the organization was not permitted to construct an outdoor 10-by-12-foot cooler building due to its placement and the site’s many existing zoning nonconformities. Healthy Waltham Executive Director BJ Osuagwu said the cooler building is standard for food pantries.

The existing building at 123 Felton St. was built in 1925, before Waltham adopted its zoning code, and in many ways doesn’t conform to the current code. By building a new freestanding structure, the organization is required to address all of those nonconformities, including the building’s position too close to the road, insufficient landscaping buffer and significant square footage, according to Michael Connors, an attorney representing Healthy Waltham.

Healthy Waltham had asked for an exemption from the city’s zoning laws through a state law known as the Dover Amendment. The law protects some religious and educational buildings from local zoning regulations, although it allows municipalities to subject them to “reasonable restrictions” on criteria such as size. The state uses a broad definition of “education” for this law: A memo from the Office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Cambell says many of the amendment’s targets “include elements other than traditional classroom education, such as housing, detoxification supports, or social and recreational activities.” 

Still, the organization’s educational designation was initially a point of contention for ZBA member Glenna Gelineau, who repeatedly said she believed in Healthy Waltham’s mission but didn’t see it as a primarily educational organization. 

Osuagwu emphasized that Healthy Waltham’s mission involved education on nutrition, cooking and navigating food resources such as the SNAP program. 

“Healthy Waltham originally was started as an organization that was strictly education. We were in schools,” he said. “It’s really easy to see Healthy Waltham as a food pantry, and that’s where things stop. But we truly are an organization that believes in the holistic well-being of all people who come through our doors, and part of that is the education.” 

Osuagwu told the ZBA that Healthy Waltham hasn’t received any objections from neighbors during the renovations process, saying the neighborhood has been “helpful and kind.”

The board voted unanimously to grant the requested relief.

Additionally, the ZBA

• Granted a second extension of time for variances it previously granted to the owners of a house on Cedarwood Avenue.
• Granted a variance for a homeowner on Villa Street to expand his single-family house with additions to its two floors and a basement. This would violate the zone’s restriction that houses must be no more than two and a half stories; although most basements count as half a story under Waltham’s zoning code, this basement counts as a full floor because it sits partially above ground.