Woburn Zoning Board approves special permit for addition at 10 Barber Circle

The Woburn Zoning Board of Appeals granted a special permit on an application from Michael and Allison Booker to build a two-story, 16-by-16 addition and a porch at 10 Barber Circle, the applicants said at the meeting.

The addition will include a basement-level office for Allison Booker, who the applicants said works from home for Roche Pharmaceuticals, and an upper-level three-season–style living-room extension that will connect to the deck, Michael Booker said. The applicants told the board that site constraints shown on their certified plot plan — including two 30-foot rear setbacks and a 20-foot drainage easement on the right side of the lot — limit where they can place an addition without a special permit.

Board members asked the applicants to confirm that the proposed addition would not occupy the footprint of the existing deck and discussed how the new structure would increase the nonconformity of the lot. The applicants said the new construction would move the proposed addition roughly four feet to the right compared with the existing deck and that the current deck is original and deteriorating.

After brief questions, a board member moved to approve the special permit; the board approved the motion and the chair said the permit will issue after the 20-day appeal period expires without an appeal being filed. The chair also advised the applicants that a written decision would be filed with the city clerk’s office, typically within about a week, and that no building permit may be issued until the appeal period ends.

The board’s approval allows the Bookers to seek building permits once the decision is filed and the appeal period has passed. The applicants did not provide a vote tally on the record at the time the chair announced the permit would issue after the appeal period.