The Needham Zoning Board of Appeals conditionally approved a special permit July (application hearing) allowing homeowners at 60 Ellicott Street to build a second-floor wall above an existing, nonconforming first-floor footprint, provided the applicants submit documentation proving the property’s construction and past additions.

The decision matters because the board must determine whether the house is legally nonconforming before allowing the enlargement. Without records that show the house’s original construction date and the date of a prior first-floor expansion, the board said it could not complete the administrative record.

At the hearing, the board described the requested relief as a special permit “to allow the extension alteration enlargement of the lawful preexisting nonconforming single family” under the town Zoning Bylaw, including Section 1.46 and 4.2(e). The project, as presented, would add a second-floor wall on the left side of the house measuring 35 feet, about 3 feet longer than the 32-foot side-wall limit discussed during the hearing. Applicant Fang Guo said the work would “just be basically the same size as the First Floor” and described the plan as adding “kind of 1 bedroom on the Seventh Floor, as you said, to just to be basically the same size as the First Floor.”

Board members reviewed municipal comments on the application. The building inspector, police, fire department and public health reported no concerns, and the planning board had not submitted comments because it had not yet reviewed the application. The board asked the applicants to produce documentary evidence—assessor records, building-department files or permit documents—showing the house was built in 1929 and that a first-floor expansion occurred circa 1994, which the applicants said had created the nonconforming condition.

The board made clear the distinction between discussion and formal action: members said they were willing to grant the special permit but only after the applicant provided the requested documentation. The Chair told the applicants, “that’s your job as the applicant to present to us all the facts relating to what you're presenting.” The board adopted a motion to approve the special permit conditioned on receipt of the supporting documents by email to staff member Daphne within about one week (the board referenced “next Friday” as the target). If the documentation was not received within the stated timeline, the board said it would treat the record differently and could require the applicants to return.

During deliberations one member noted the plans and footprint in the application “made sense” in showing the existing first-floor configuration and the proposed second-floor alignment; another member recommended accepting a conditioned approval rather than forcing the applicants to return if they supplied the requested records promptly. A member also recommended that applicants obtain records from both the Building Department and the Assessor’s Office.

The board voted to approve the permit with the documentation condition; members voiced assent by saying “aye.” The board did not read a roll-call vote on the record and did not record individual yes/no votes in the hearing transcript.

Next steps: the applicants were instructed to email the building- and assessor-records to Daphne, town staff, within the week. The planning board remains unasked to comment until it reviews the application at a future meeting.