Arlington ZBA closes hearings on three porch cases, adopts Mead Road decision

ARLINGTON — November 25, 2025 — Arlington's Zoning Board of Appeals closed hearings on three porch-related special-permit applications at its November 25 meeting, directing written decisions for all three to be adopted at the December 9 session. Chair Christian Klein and member Patrick Hanlon led extended deliberations on Docket 3872, 15 Foster Street Unit 1, where applicant Andrew Burns presented revised sketches showing an eight-inch soffit, vertical siding, and panel detailing intended to make a porch enclosure read visually as a porch rather than a front-yard addition; the board added a fifth condition requiring similar panel treatment at the first-floor level. Docket 3876, 19 Farrington Road, won early praise for its large windows and traditional corner detailing — Hanlon called window area "a feature that more than many other possibilities tends to create a sense that that's really a porch" — with the application set to add approximately 546 square feet to bring gross floor area to 4,080 square feet on a 4,275-square-foot lot. Docket 3877, 29 Codd Street, a straightforward open farmer's porch reducing front setback to roughly 19 feet 9 inches, drew the only public comment of the evening, with neighbor Steve Moore of Piedmont Street calling it "an excellent addition." Hanlon, who chaired that hearing after Klein recused himself over a business relationship with the applicant's representative, added a condition requiring corrected dimensional and open-space calculations before the building inspector acts. The board also unanimously adopted the written decision in Docket 3867, 10 Mead Road, and welcomed new Select Board-appointed associate member Nick Rosenberg, a Boston civil litigator with 15 years of Arlington residency.