Application to the Zoning Board of Adjustment

This application must be complete and filed in the Wilton Town Office, along with an abutter list, and with all fees paid, 14 days before the meeting at which the application is to be considered. If it is filed a week before that deadline, then we will try to contact you for additional information if it is incomplete. Otherwise, an incomplete application may result in your application being delayed until the following month.

If you have any questions about how to complete this application, please contact the Zoning Board chairperson or clerk, whose names and phone numbers you can get at the Wilton Town Office.

We will be happy to help you understand the Zoning Board application process and legal requirements, but we cannot advise you on your personal situation. If you are uncertain about how the zoning laws apply to your case, we recommend that you obtain professional advice.

General Instructions

Use this form for all applications to the Wilton Zoning Board, except:

• If the Selectmen, Planning Board, Building Inspector, or any other town board or official has made a decision to allow someone else to do something that you don’t think they should be allowed to do, use the Third-Party Appeal of Administrative Decision form.
• To ask the Zoning Board to hold a new hearing to reconsider a decision that it made at a previous meeting, use the Request for Rehearing form.

Contents of an Application

Your application must include the “General Information” section and at least one application for a special exception, variance, equitable waiver, appeal of administrative decision, or request for an extension. You may include more than one application section, as long as they are all for the same proposed use.

For example, you might appeal an administrative decision, and also apply for a variance that would permit the same use, in case the appeal is denied; or you might have a proposed use that would require several variances and special exceptions.

Fee

The fee is $125 for the application, plus $10 for each abutter.

Abutter List

The abutter list must include the name and mailing address of

• the applicant,
• the property owner or owners,
• every person who owns property which touches any lot involved in the application (even at a corner) or is directly or diagonally across a road, stream, river, or railway right-of-way from a lot involved in the application, and
• the holders of any conservation, preservation, or agricultural preservation restrictions on any of the lots involved in the application.

Include the lot numbers of the all the abutting lots owned by each abutter.

You must also provide the abutter list (without the lot numbers) on two sets of adhesive mailing labels, no larger than 1½ × 3¼ inches.

It is your responsibility to provide an accurate abutter list. A Zoning Board decision that is made without notifying all abutters may not be valid, and an abutter who was not properly notified may be able to have the decision overturned.

Burden of Proof

The applicant shall have the burden of proving any historical facts relevant to an appeal before the Board. Such relevant historical facts include, but are not limited to, the date on which a lot, structure, or use came into existence.

Proof that a lot existed as a Lot of Record (Zoning Ordinance Section 3.1.19) on a particular date shall require signed certification to that effect by an attorney or licensed land surveyor, accompanied by copies of the deed or deeds from the Hillsborough County Registry of Deeds that support that conclusion.

The existence of a structure or use on a particular date may be established by testimony or by documentary evidence.

Alternative Applications

If you are applying for a variance for reduced setbacks, frontage, or lot size, please read sections 17.2 and 17.3 of the Zoning Ordinance to see if they apply to your situation.

If you are applying for a variance from dimensional requirements for a building or structure that has already been built, please look at the “Application for an Equitable Waiver” in this package to see if it applies to your situation.