GREENFIELD — The Zoning Board of Appeals signed a settlement agreement with the candle manufacturing company Aromatic Fillers on Thursday evening, putting to bed a two-year legal debate over whether the company had the legal right to manufacture candles in its location without a special permit.
The settlement agreement states that Aromatic Fillers left its 38 Haywood St. location on Dec. 31, 2025, and is in the process of relocating outside of the city before July 1.
Two years 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 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. Thursday’s meeting settled the litigation.
“Think of this [settlement] decision as a basket. That basket is now being put in the closet. There’s nothing in that basket that could be taken out and used again,” ZBA Chair David Singer said, explaining the settlement agreement. “We, Aromatic [Fillers] and the city can have other conflicts, theoretically, but … this particular conflict is done.”
Singer went on to explain that the ZBA, in 2024, used the 1973 Powers v. Building Inspector of Barnstable case to establish a three-pronged test to determine whether a site’s change in non-conforming use warrants a new special permit. Citing the Powers case, he said a site’s new use must reflect “the nature and purpose” of the site’s previous use; must have a similar quality, character or degree of use in order for the new use to not require a special permit; and leave a minimal negative impact on its neighborhood.
In 2024, resident Marion Griswold and other abutters of the candle factory brought complaints that the site was emitting noxious odors to Building Inspector Mark Snow and later to the ZBA.
“While the first two [prongs of the Powers case] were relevant to some degree, the board hung its hat on the third prong, and felt that the manufacturing that had been done before didn’t create the smell that existed and permeated from the site, based on the candle manufacturing,” Singer explained. “We determined that the applicant, even though they had been there for 10 years without anyone interfering with what they were doing, would need to come back to the board for a special permit so that we could see what the abutters’ feelings were about the use, and to see if any conditions needed to be imposed.”
Griswold, in an interview Friday morning, said she was pleased with the settlement and commended the board for its attention to detail during the two-year dispute.
“We are very pleased that the city has followed its own ordinances,” she said. “I really am very appreciative of the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the care and attention they brought to this issue. They deliberated on it with care and tremendous attention to detail.”