Sudbury ZBA grants four permits in four-member sitting

SUDBURY — October 6, 2025 — Sudbury ZBA clears four cases 4-0, including the Roche Brothers sign and a Nolan Circle septic fix. With member Michael Hershberg absent, Chair John Riordan warned each applicant that one negative vote would kill their petition under the supermajority rule; all four chose to proceed. The board approved Charles Bromley's 125.2-square-foot internally illuminated sign for the Sudbury Farms-to-Roche Brothers conversion at 1776 Plaza, after the Design Review Board required a 15 percent size cut. Scott Poirier of Zeal Properties won a variance from the lot-shape bylaw — exceeding the maximum perimeter by 49 feet, or 3.9 percent — to absorb a 5,400-square-foot gift from an abutter and save a newly installed $40,000 septic system at 10 Nolan Circle. John Breckner's 422 Dutton Road rebuild and David Winchester's unlit monument sign for Longfellow Glen apartments also cleared. Member Jennifer Pincus pressed hardest on internal sign illumination, saying she worried about precedent: "I like the way Sudbury Farms looks now and I don't like the way they look."