A contested petition to build on a vacant lot on Atlantic Boulevard was denied by the Fall River Zoning Board of Appeals on Jan. 16, 2025, after multiple abutters and counsel presented a prior zoning decision and a Superior Court judgment that the opponents said restricts development of the parcel.

Petitioners Don Andrade and others, represented by attorney David Magna, asked for variances in an R8 single-family district (lot-area, frontage, width, side-yard and lot-coverage) for a parcel the applicants said has been in the family since 1919. Magna described prior variances granted in the 1990s and said the parcel had been used historically for cottages and later renovation.

Opposition counsel Matthew Askin (representing a group of abutters) presented a packet including the 1993 zoning decision and the Superior Court actions culminating in a 1996 judgment. Askin told the board the 1996 decision imposed negotiated conditions, including a maximum height (18 feet above mean grade), limits on the northern boundary and no additions on the Tyndall Street side; he argued the current plan conflicts with those recorded restrictions and would place a new structure in the abutters’ rear yards and block ocean views. Abutters raised emergency-access concerns for the adjacent Tyndall Street dead end and cited the property's location in a velocity flood zone.

After hearing opposition, counsel for the petitioners asked to withdraw the petition without prejudice. The board first voted on allowing the withdrawal, but the motion to allow withdrawal without prejudice failed on a roll call. The board then took a motion to deny the petition; the motion to deny passed with votes recorded as: Alexis — yes; James Calkins — yes; Dan DuPere — yes; Eric Kelly — yes; Jim McCreary — yes. The item concluded with the petition denied.

Several abutters provided photographs and documented recorded judgments; the board and counsel discussed that a prior variance had been acted upon in the 1990s and that court-ordered conditions remain binding unless a court order removes them.