Woburn panel advances gym, dog kennel permits; keeps Franklin Street rebuild in committee

GROVELAND — May 11, 2026 — Woburn's Committee on Special Permits advanced two petitions to the full City Council and kept two others in committee at its May 11 session. The panel, chaired by Councilor Charles Viola in the absence of Chair Councilor Marissa Bruin, voted unanimously to send a change-of-use permit for a private gymnasium at 102 Main Street and a dog training and boarding kennel at 41 High Street — the latter with 12 conditions including a cap of 15 dogs and a six-month Animal Control Officer review — to the full council with favorable reports. The contested petition by 20 Franklin Realty Trust to raze and reconstruct a fire-damaged three-family at 20 Franklin Street was returned to active committee status after a resident presented voter registration research suggesting gaps in three-family occupancy during the 1970s and 1980s, and Councilor Jeff Dillon said he wanted stronger basement ADU safeguards before moving it forward. The Cummings Foundation's bid to add a 20-unit, three-story building to its New Horizons senior campus at 21 Warren Avenue — reduced from 26 units and shortened by 12 and a half feet since the last hearing — also stayed in committee pending a department head meeting and distribution of draft conditions.