Manchester Zoning Board approves series of variances, grants reasonable accommodation for women’s recovery home

Manchester’s Zoning Board of Adjustment on April 10 approved a slate of zoning variances and related actions covering residences, signs, a tattoo studio and a recovery home, and postponed two cases to the board’s May 8 hearing.

The board granted a requested reasonable accommodation for Grand Mason Recovery Home at 117 Ramsey Street to allow a total occupancy consistent with the facility’s claim of serving disabled residents in recovery; it attached a condition that the accommodation terminates if the property is no longer occupied by disabled individuals under the applicant’s supervision. The board also approved variances that will allow conversions or additional dwelling units at properties across the city, a tattoo studio to operate in an industrial zone, new signage for a community services campus, and subdivision and construction projects in several neighborhoods.

Why it matters: the approvals add and preserve small-scale rental housing and formalize operations for services that city officials and neighbors said are already active on the ground. The accommodation for Grand Mason addresses an immediate operating question for a licensed recovery operator that has housed women in phases and sought to continue serving more than the zoning definition of “family” would otherwise allow.

Grand Mason recovery home Persephone Lesperant, who identified herself as owner/operator of Grand Mason Recovery Home, asked the board for a reasonable accommodation that would allow seven unrelated disabled individuals to occupy one dwelling unit and six unrelated disabled individuals to occupy the second unit — a total occupancy the applicant said matches the program’s current census and its operational model. Lesperant provided certification paperwork, a fire-variance application with the state and letters from two local employers who said they had…