Middleborough · Zoning Board of Appeals

One case was continued before it was heard. The other ran 48 minutes on septic flow, stormwater and lane striping. Indemnification, insurance, bonding and ownership came up in neither.

John Barrella – The G.O.A.T. News  ·  Saturday, October 24, 2026

MIDDLEBOROUGH — The Zoning Board of Appeals took up two petitions from attorney Michael O’Shaughnessy on Thursday night. The first lasted about 90 seconds. The second lasted about 48 minutes and never touched the subject this newspaper asked the board to raise in both.

On Oct. 17, The G.O.A.T. News argued that the board should ask one question in both cases: who pays if the project goes wrong. In practice that means indemnification, a written promise to cover the town’s costs and defend it in court, plus naming the town as an additional insured.

A review of MCCAM’s recording of the Oct. 22 meeting finds no mention of indemnification, insurance, bonding, decommissioning or project ownership in either hearing.

The church conversion never got heard

Chairman Darrin DeGrazia moved the School Street case to the top of the agenda to save time. He read the petition into the record: O’Shaughnessy, on behalf of Nemasket Capital Partners, LLC, seeking site plan approval and variances to convert the former church at 10, 16 and 22 School Street into 41 studio apartments, raze a single-family house for parking, and keep an existing three-family dwelling.

Then it stopped. The applicant asked for a continuance, with the explanation that they were not ready to move forward. One member recused himself, telling DeGrazia he was an abutter. The board voted it to Nov. 12 without discussion.

“Anybody wanting to participate in that hearing,” DeGrazia said, “we’ll come back on November 12th.”

No one asked who owns Nemasket Capital Partners. The agenda does not say, and the company was not discussed further.

The surf park, in detail, on everything else

The surf park hearing was substantive. O’Shaughnessy opened for N.E.S.P., LLC and walked the board through where the application stands.

He said the design team had held a Zoom call with the board’s peer reviewers at Apex before their comment letter issued, and that the applicant had answered the civil engineering comments but still owed a response on traffic. A meeting with MassDOT was set for the next morning.

“Instead of giving you half an answer to a traffic letter, we’d rather give you a whole answer to a traffic letter.”

O’Shaughnessy told the board the project’s last appearance was “back in July.” The agenda records the hearing as continued from Sept. 24.

Keith Curran of Bohler Engineering, the applicant’s civil engineer, described a scaled-back plan. A wellness building has been removed. The hub building has been shrunk and shifted. The cottage units remain in the same number but move to a later phase. Parking drops to 211 spaces, 12 of them land-banked.

The largest change is wastewater. The applicant has removed the on-site treatment plant from the plans, having calculated flow at roughly 9,550 gallons per day, under the 10,000-gallon threshold that would trigger a state treatment requirement. Curran said the figure still needs confirmation from the Board of Health, that test pits have not been dug and the septic design is not done.

Asked whether that leaves room to expand, Curran said it does not. Anything further generating wastewater flow would not fit under the limit.

A principal at Apex, appearing in a colleague’s place, told the board the applicant appeared to have addressed most of the firm’s comments, with the remainder centered on federal discharge permitting for the lagoon. Apex has not issued its letter. On traffic, he flagged one open item on the Surfside Drive approach.

“It’s really the two entering lanes that are concerning to us.”

Two residents spoke. One asked about the lagoon’s discharge capacity and leak detection, and was told the 8-million-gallon lagoon can release up to a million gallons a day and would take about eight days to drain. The second, who said he had come for a different purpose, asked whether a catastrophic failure could send the lagoon downhill into Fall Brook. He was told the stormwater system is designed to the 100-year storm and that it would not overtop the road.

The clock

At the close, the board continued the surf park to Nov. 12. The agenda lists the extended decision deadline as Nov. 13.

That leaves one day. O’Shaughnessy raised the possibility of needing more time, telling DeGrazia that if the applicant could not get a response “for whatever reason,” it might need another continuance. Both of his cases now sit on the same Nov. 12 agenda.

A seat opens

The board also voted to recommend Nancy Kefalis as a regular member, following the resignation of Liz Elgosin, effective immediately, after 27 years. It was Elgosin who raised the decommissioning question on the surf park in July.

Four residents came forward for three open seats. Only one spoke, a practicing attorney who said he has lived in town nine years and wanted to give back. Appointments are made by the Select Board.

Questions the record does not answer

Why Nemasket Capital Partners was not ready. The application was filed and advertised. The continuance request came with no stated reason beyond not being ready to move forward.

Who is behind Nemasket Capital Partners. Still not on the record, three weeks after the question was first raised publicly.

Whether 18 questions will be answered. They were sent Sept. 4 with a Sept. 10 deadline. Two calls to O’Shaughnessy’s office went to voicemail. The G.O.A.T. News will publish any response in full.

This account is drawn from the Middleborough Zoning Board of Appeals agenda for Oct. 22, 2026 and from MCCAM’s recording of the meeting. Attorney Michael O’Shaughnessy has not responded to written questions from The G.O.A.T. News sent Sept. 4, 2026.

Barrella serves on the Middleborough Finance Committee and the Town Manager Search Committee. Neither body has a role in the Zoning Board of Appeals’ review of these petitions.