Abington Board of Health Approves Variances for Two Residential Septic Projects

ABINGTON — March 25, 2026 — Abington Board of Health approves septic variances for two constrained residential lots and flags unresolved gaps in a proposed tobacco regulation overhaul. The board voted 3-0 at its March 25 meeting to approve local variances and Title 5 relief for 9 Woodland Drive, a two-unit five-bedroom property whose February hearing had been continued after the assessor's card listed an erroneous 16 rooms and eight bedrooms, and 3-0 to approve a more complex package for 17 Worcester Drive, a 4,000-square-foot lot where engineer Nathaniel of Stansky McNary proposed a rare Percorite drip dispersal system that carries a DEP remedial use approval allowing installation as close as five feet to a foundation wall — a first for the board. On tobacco regulations, Health Agent Francis Dale revealed that a 2019 amendment to the town's 2018 rules appears to have been adopted but never entered into the town's e360 records system or confirmed in meeting minutes, prompting Chair Matt Wayson to warn that "anything we've enforced that was not in the 2018 regulations but was in the 2019 since then could be a problem." The board identified additional open questions on permit transferability, cigar minimum pricing, nicotine pouch concentration caps, and a smoking bar prohibition, and agreed to schedule an additional April meeting with the Leominster Tobacco Alliance before targeting a May vote.