Proposed Muffin Shop Gets Ten Seats And Main Street Dispute Continues

On Monday night, the Westford Board of Health approved a variance that could bring a new business into what once was the Fashion Truck on Main location.

In a 3-0-0 vote, the Board approved a maximum of 10 seats into half of the first floor of the site for a restaurant concept proposed by Ellen Harde tentatively titled “Muffins on Main.”

The hopeful restaurant, which would serve baked goods in the historic town center building, received a pair of variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals in December that would make the business feasible while also allowing the four current residents to remain in the building at their current rental prices.

With the Board of Health, Harde requested a variance regarding the amount of seats due to health code requirements related to water disposal.

Although the ideal number of seats within the restaurant was 16, Harde requested the board grant more than the recommended four.

Director of Environmental Services Jeff Stephens said that approximately eight, and maybe slightly more, could be achieved with a variety of improvements and other methods to reduce strain on the building’s septic capacity.

The Board agreed to allow the 10 seats for a period of a year with continual monitoring to see if there were any issues.

The meeting also held a follow up from 164 Main Street, where the board voted 3-0-0 to request landlord Laura Kell remediate exterior issues with the house by June 30, weather permitting.

At the board’s January meeting, Kell came before the board after one of her tenants, a man named Bill Spina, began to make a series of complaints about the over 200-year-old building, many of which she found to be unreasonable.

Tensions arose, leading to police intervention at times as well as nearly four dozen health code violations.

Stephens presented the board with a list of the violations, as requested at the last meeting, but also indicated that no life threatening issues were currently present within the portion of the building Spina lived.

Spina also requested that the board hold a grievance hearing, which the board had scheduled for 8:10 p.m. However, after Spina did not arrive at that time, the board cancelled the hearing.

WestfordCAT News could not obtain comment from Spina as of Monday evening at 10 p.m.