Planning Board Closes Church Street Rezoning Hearing

Planning Board · Meeting of October 27, 2026

Winchester's Planning Board closed a two-hour hearing on rezoning the old Church Street church for housing without making a recommendation. Attorney Mark Vaughn, for buyer Manuel Reyna's Church Group LLC, proposed converting the 1957 church into five condos plus ten townhouses, 15 units total, under a shift from SCI to RB-20 zoning. Member John Cortizas recused himself.

During public comment, resident Brian Doherty told the board Cortizas is an investor in the project, a disclosure Doherty said came from an October 21 Housing Partnership Board meeting. Resident Lainey Zamor cited MassDOT data ranking the adjacent Wedgmere Avenue intersection among Winchester's ten worst for crashes, "this exact intersection ranked in the top 10 of over 100 Winchester intersections analyzed." Attorney Dan Hill, for four neighboring families, challenged the board's prior vote on the site's MBTA "eligible location" status, which could cut the Town Meeting approval threshold from two-thirds to a simple majority. The board will vote on its recommendation November 5, the same night Fall Town Meeting convenes.

In the full story:

• Zoning Bylaw Cleanup: Articles 4, 5 and 6
• 114 Church Street Rezoning: Article 39
• Christopher Columbus Club Rezoning: Article 40
• Ledges Condominium Open Space Release and Rezoning: Articles 41 and 42
• Board Discussion: Forward Planning
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,918 words

Source: the Planning Board meeting of October 27, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.