Board approves McLean sign waiver, elects officers

Planning Board · Meeting of September 8, 2026

BELMONT — The Belmont Planning Board approved a dimensional waiver letting McLean Hospital Corporation install a 27.76-square-foot entrance sign at Olmstead Drive and Pleasant Street, well over the district's 18-square-foot limit. The board voted 6-0-0 for the waiver after Director of Planning and Building Chris Ryan and applicant representative Jack Dawley of Northland Residential Corporation walked through the design, which identifies four developments including Waverley Woods and the McLean Adolescent Campus. Resident Rick Semerjian asked whether increased visibility could draw unwanted hospital-bound traffic onto the private road; Dawley said "it's in my best interest" to keep the drive maintained to a high standard.

The board also re-elected Thayer Donham chair and chose Steve Weinstein vice chair, both 5-0-0, continued a 45 Chestnut Street special permit case and a zoning bylaw amendment package to September 22, and pushed a Rules and Regulations overhaul to October 6 after learning the board's own chair had never seen the town's 2016 design guidelines.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
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Source: the Planning Board meeting of September 8, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

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