Orleans ZBA approves 41 Main St. restaurant permit
Zoning Board · Meeting of September 2, 2026
Orleans ZBA waives parking rules, clears 80-seat restaurant for 41 Main Street. The board voted 4-0 to grant a special permit allowing 41 Main Street Orleans LLC, represented by attorney Ben Zender, to convert a vacant retail building into a restaurant with entertainment and alcohol service, including a new outdoor dining deck that extends an existing front-yard setback nonconformity. Rather than require the roughly 24 parking spaces the bylaw calls for, the board accepted a sketch plan showing informal rear-lot parking as an interim measure, conditioned on fire department access.
"We think the deck will be an attractive addition," Zender told the board. Town Planner Elizabeth Jenkins separately previewed a broader zoning bylaw rewrite that would raise the special-permit floor-area threshold from 2,500 to 4,000 square feet and lift a ban on restaurant alcohol service in the Marine Business District, with a Planning Board public hearing set for next week.
In the full story:
- Who Was There
- Organizations And Documents Referenced
- The complete report — 3,002 words
Source: the Zoning Board meeting of September 2, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
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