By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
MANSFIELD The zoning board concluded Monday that the produce stand of 14-year-old Matthew Bassett is not a permitted use of his family’s Main Street residential property.
The board refused to overturn the decision of a township zoning officer who closed down the stand last July.
The township originally shut down the produce stand in the summer of 2007 after it had been in operation for about five years. But officials permitted it to reopen the next year until the zoning officer closed it in July 2008, said David Frank, Matthew’s lawyer.
Mr. Frank said he presented two arguments at the zoning board’s Monday meeting. First, he contended the family’s property is in a C3 zone, in which are permitted “both residential uses and a wide variety of commercial uses, including retail uses,” he said.
”If it’s anything other than (that),” he continued, the stand “could be perceived as a residential accessory use.”
That describes uses that are “clearly subordinate to the principal use” of a property, he said, such as a home office, a swimming pool, or a carpentry shed.
Mr. Frank said a farm stand on a residence, as opposed to a commercial farm, is such a use, and that they “are found sufficiently frequently that they ought to be perceived as customary” uses of such properties.
But the zoning board disagreed, a township official confirmed, and Matthew’s farm stand is not currently permitted by the township.
Mr. Frank said the board focused mainly on issues related to the actual site, such as traffic and parking. He said those are “legitimate concerns, but I don’t know that they go to whether the use is permitted or whether the use is customary.”
The family is considering its next step, Mr. Frank said, and has two options. They could request a use variance from the zoning board, and they could also appeal the board’s decision to the courts.
But seeking a use variance can cost thousands of dollars, and though he did not have exact details, Mr. Frank said that expense “would certainly make the stand unprofitable if it could even cover the cost.”
Finally, he said he argued before the board that the stand “is the endeavor of a child, not an adult with commercial activity. This is something that a young person is doing that contributes positively to the community.”
He noted Matthew has “made significant charitable contributions,” including buying a tractor that he uses to plow out his elderly neighbors and community spaces.
”This is something of a different character than a strictly commercial or adult activity,” Mr. Frank said, “and we thought that should change the board’s perception.”

