Shirley Wayside Ltd. Partnership v. Board of Appeals of Shirley

Shirley Wayside Limited Partnership (Wayside), owner of a mobile home park in the town of Shirley, sought a special permit from the town’s zoning board of appeals (board) in order to expand its mobile home park, a lawfully nonconforming use, from sixty-five to seventy-nine units. The board refused to grant the special permit, finding that Wayside had failed to establish that the expansion would not be substantially more detrimental to the neighborhood than the existing mobile home park. Deeming the concerns articulated by the board to be mere pretexts and unsupported by the evidence, a judge…