Keene ZBA unanimously reverses acting zoning administrator on build-to zone interpretation

The Keene Zoning Board of Adjustment on Tuesday evening unanimously reversed an administrative determination that would have required every building or structure on a lot in the Downtown Edge District to be located inside the 0–20-foot build-to zone, a ruling that affects an appeal tied to 67 Marlborough Street.

Petitioner Jared Goodell argued the city’s Land Development Code (LDC) requires that a single structure’s façade locate in the build-to zone, and that the acting zoning administrator’s written interpretation improperly read “a” to mean “any” and, in effect, rewrote the code. “Only a structure must locate in the build to zone,” Goodell said, urging the board to withdraw the written determination and hold that additional structures may locate outside the build-to zone once an initial façade compliance structure is provided.

Mary Brunner, senior planner and acting zoning administrator, told the board she applies the LDC’s applicability rules to every proposed new building or…