Shutesbury Planning Board Approves Jewish Cemetery as Religious Use, Continues Land Division Case

SHUTESBURY — June 1, 2026 — Shutesbury Planning Board finds no zoning role over Jewish Community of Amherst cemetery expansion, unanimously invoking Dover Amendment. The board voted 4-0 at its June 1 hybrid meeting, with member Michael Becquera recusing himself as a JCA member, to recognize the proposed expansion of the JCA cemetery onto land being donated by W.D. Coles as a religious use permitted by right under Section 8.5-3 of the town's zoning bylaw and MGL Chapter 40A, Section 3. Attorney Peter, appearing for the JCA, told the board "legally, I do not think that the Shutesbury Planning Board has any role to play in this because of the Dover Amendment." The board also continued to its July 7 meeting an Approval Not Required land-division request covering parcels at 314 and 282 Wendell Road after surveyor Michael Schaefer of Huntley Associates disclosed a day-of field check revealed a Plaza family shed may fall on a newly created lot line dividing what would become a three-lot subdivision, raising unresolved questions about whether a planning board may decline to endorse an ANR plan that creates a setback nonconformity.