Zoning board overturns enforcement finding, rules garage at 186 Berlingame Road a pre‑existing nonconforming use

The Town of Charlton Zoning Board of Appeals voted May 19 to overturn the zoning enforcement officer’s March 12, 2026 determination and granted an appeal from petitioner Nelson Berlingame, concluding that a 40-by-60 garage at what is now 186 Berlingame Road constitutes a pre‑existing nonconforming principal use rather than an accessory use.

The board’s decision reversed the current enforcement finding after members reviewed letters from a prior zoning enforcement officer, Robert Gothier, dated December 29, 1998, and January 20, 1999. The earlier letters describe storage of equipment, parking of vehicles and employees meeting on the property, which the board said matched Berlingame’s testimony and supporting documents. “I provided a list of equipment,” Berlingame told the board, offering licenses, receipts and notarized statements to show continuous use predating zoning.

Board members debated legal effect of a 2025 subdivision that separated the garage from the house on the original parcel. The zoning enforcement officer’s position presented to the board was that the garage was an accessory structure to the dwelling and therefore lost any grandfathered status when ownership and lot lines changed. Several members disagreed. “I don’t think that garage was an accessory use,” said a board member during deliberations, noting evidence that the garage had an independent use pattern prior to zoning.

After waiving the bylaw requirement to formalize findings before the vote, the board moved to overturn the enforcement determination and to treat the use described in the 1998–1999 letters—storage of equipment, parking of vehicles, and employees meeting prior to dispatch to job sites—as the limited, pre‑existing nonconforming use that may continue. The motion passed; the board announced the determination overturned and accepted written findings of fact that the board recited into the record.

The board’s written findings, as stated in the record, include: the original parcel comprised about 7.7 acres; the garage and a single‑family dwelling existed before the town enacted zoning; the garage was used for storage of equipment and for employees to gather prior to work; an ANR plan recorded at the county registry divided the property into three lots in 2025, separating the garage and the dwelling; and the dwelling lot was conveyed in September 2025. The board accepted those findings by vote.

The board clarified that its determination confines the allowable activity to the uses documented in the historical letters; any expansion of activity beyond those described would be subject to the zoning bylaw and could require a new approval. The board noted that the ruling addresses this specific appeal and does not bind future adjudications of other properties.

The decision will be memorialized with formal findings and the usual filing requirements; the board noted the appeal outcome and next procedural steps for drafting the decision and recording it with the town clerk.