Stoneham Board of Appeals Dismisses 26 Broadway Sober Living Facility Challenge on Technicality

STONEHAM -- May 21, 2026, Stoneham's Board of Appeals voted 5-0 to dismiss a challenge to a building permit for a 34-bed sober living facility at 26 Broadway, ruling the appeal was procedurally defective. Town Counsel Attorney Robert Galvin advised the board that appellant Robert Wopperer's attorney, William Heaney, had failed to send a certified copy of the filed appeal to the building commissioner as required by Chapter 40A, Section 15, a step Galvin called jurisdictional and not waivable. The board first rejected 2-3 a motion to continue the hearing to June 18 to allow the certified copy to be sent, with Chair Tobin Shulman, Vice Chair Bob Saltzman, and member Michael Dufour voting no. Heaney, who argued the omission was an honest mistake made partly because Stoneham had no established procedure for appealing a permit issuance, said his office intends to seek leave from Land Court to refile. In earlier business, the board unanimously approved insubstantial parking changes to the 378-unit Fairfield at Spot Pond apartment project at 10 and 20 Executive Drive and a six-month extension of a variance for 7 Gerald Road.