Stoneham Board of Appeals Approves South Street Drug House Conversion to Condominiums

STONEHAM — June 26, 2025 — Stoneham Board of Appeals approves South Street condo conversion and rejects Elm Street deck variance. The board voted 4-1 Thursday night to grant a package of variances allowing J. Mark LLC of North Reading to convert a blighted two-family property at 68 South Street into three owner-occupied condominiums projected to sell at roughly $700,000 per unit, with Acting Chair Robert Saltzman and members Michael Dufour, Kevin McLaughlin, and associate member Steve Levy voting in favor and associate member Bill Sullivan dissenting. Attorney Charles Houghton, representing developer David Piscatelli — a Medford Fire Department lieutenant — argued that a two-unit renovation would produce a net loss of roughly $200,000 and that only a three-unit condominium structure could finance a full rehabilitation of what neighbors described as a drug house plagued by parking and nuisance problems for nearly three decades. The board attached a condition requiring an exterior egress stairway running from grade to the third floor. In a separate action, the board unanimously denied a dimensional variance sought by Richard Pignone of 93 Elm Street, who had built a 19-by-32-foot deck to within 3.5 feet of his side property line without a permit in a zone requiring a 10-foot setback; opposing attorney Bill Heaney argued the hardship was self-created and that a conforming deck was achievable at a smaller footprint.