Fitchburg Housing Authority v. Board of Zoning Appeals

The dispositive issue in this case is whether a facility, proposed to be operated by the North Central Massachusetts Mental Health Association, Inc. (Association), on premises owned by the Fitchburg Housing Authority (Housing Authority), is a public educational use which the Fitch-burg zoning ordinance may not forbid. The Association proposes to operate a residential facility in which formerly institutionalized but educable adults, with histories of mental difficulties, will live while being trained in skills for independent living, such as self-care, cooking, job seeking, budgeting, and…