Peabody board lets group home plan be withdrawn

Planning Board · Meeting of May 7, 2026

PEABODY — The Peabody Planning Board let an applicant withdraw a group home site plan after staff said state law bars the board from reviewing it. Community Development staff and the city solicitor determined that group homes count as single-family homes under the city's zoning ordinance, exempting them from site plan review. Attorney John Kelty withdrew the 303 Wall Street application "without prejudice" after a packed hearing of concerned neighbors.

One member said "we've had our authority taken away from us because of state law." The board also accepted a May 6 Community Development memo and a May 5 MassDOT letter on a 532 Lowell Street dental office project from OJT Realty LLC, where 15 parking spaces are allowed under a variance for eight employees, continuing that case to May 21. A 24-space, nearly 6,000-square-foot veterinary clinic at 81 Prospect Street was continued to June 4 pending a stormwater review.

In the full story:

• The Full Story
• [00:07:12] — a Planning Board member
• [00:25:16] — Dr. Peter Rosa
• [01:22:07] — architect Christopher Kidd
• Why It Matters
• Key Motions & Votes
• Source
• Peabody's community access TV: Planning Board meeting, May 7, 2026
• The complete report: 874 words

Source: the Planning Board meeting of May 7, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.