Gloucester Board of Health Continues Wingaersheek Road Septic Cases Pending Further Review

Board of Health · Meeting of February 5, 2026

Gloucester Board of Health continued two contested Wingaersheek Road septic cases and approved variances for two other residential properties at its February 5 meeting. The board voted unanimously to approve local upgrade requests for 150 Hepburn Avenue and variance requests for 163 Magnolia Avenue, both involving systems proposed within environmentally constrained lots. The most debated items concerned 105 and 107 Wingaersheek Road, where attorney Joel Favazza of Seaside Legal Solutions argued that denying variances to site septic systems within a coastal dune area would eliminate "substantially all" beneficial uses of the R-20-zoned parcels, a threshold under Title V's manifestly unjust standard.

Assistant General Counsel Rocco De Filippis cautioned the board that a variance is discretionary even when all three Title V prongs are satisfied, and that the question is not maximum economic use but whether current use is preserved; City Sanitarian Cody Smith noted an existing five-bedroom home on the property means the case must be evaluated as new construction, not an upgrade. The board continued both Wingaersheek cases to March with the applicant tolling the 45-day approval period. Separately, Eastern Waste Services presented a supplemental traffic study for the proposed 24 Condlin Road construction and demolition transfer facility, finding average speeds of 20 miles per hour near the Magnolia Avenue underpass and no reported crashes there in five years; peer reviewer Doug Elser of Weston and Sampson called the study's signage recommendations reasonable.

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Source: the Board of Health meeting of February 5, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.