GREENFIELD — The Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously Thursday night to approve an agreement with the Haywood Street candle manufacturing facility Aromatic Fillers, which will pause the company’s current litigation against the city while it pursues a special permit to continue operations.
Under the agreement, the ZBA will hold a public hearing no later than November to determine whether Aromatic Fillers will receive a permit.
“It would have taken time and money on both sides [to litigate],” ZBA Chair David Singer explained at Thursday’s hearing. “I actually approached the other side and said, ‘Why don’t you hold this, come for a special permit, see what happens and if you’re not happy with what happens here, then you can appeal this to the Superior Court.'”
When resident Marion Griswold requested that the board include a deadline by which it must hold the special permit hearing, Singer explained that with the proposed housing development at Stone Farm Lane slated for discussion, too, the board is unsure whether that issue will occupy a significant amount of time.
More than a year ago, the ZBA voted to require that Aromatic Fillers, which had been operating under a permit issued to a tool manufacturing facility, get a special permit to continue its operations. Although Aromatic Fillers is located in a residential zoning district, the 2-acre lot was grandfathered for commercial use, and in 2014, Robert Savage was granted a manufacturing permit for the production of cutting tools.
Shortly after the ZBA’s unanimous July 2024 vote, Aromatic Fillers filed litigation appealing the decision in Franklin County Superior Court, seeking a reversal on the grounds that it was “not supported by substantial evidence,” as the company had been operating since 2015 under the manufacturing permit that was granted to the site’s previous owner.
Debate over whether the company needed a special permit persisted in a series of public hearings from May to July 2024, in which attorney Jacob Morris, who represented Aromatic Fillers owner Todd Green, referred to the business’ right to operate under its previous manufacturing license as being “black-letter law.” In response, Singer, in a July 2024 hearing, argued that under precedent of the 1973 Powers v. Building Inspector of Barnstable case, the business must apply for a special permit to approve the site’s new use.
