Acushnet Board Approves Pershing Avenue ADU With Mandatory Septic Tank Replacement

ACUSHNET -- June 23, 2026, Acushnet Board of Health conditionally approved a one-bedroom ADU at 47 Pershing Avenue, requiring a new 1,500-gallon two-compartment septic tank before occupancy. The two-member board, Chairman David Davignon and Member Robert Medeiros, sitting without Vice Chairman Thomas Fortin, who was absent, voted unanimously Tuesday to allow construction to proceed but attached a permanent restriction: the property's existing system, which consists of a 1,000-gallon tank and two obsolete leaching pits, one of which is actively overflowing into the other, will not be considered a passing Title V system for any future sale of the property. Davignon, who has been reviewing building permit applications in the absence of a health agent for several months, said the board had to protect future owners: "We're being asked to sign off on a septic system that may technically pass Title V, but if I was asked to look at it as a consultant for a buyer of the house, I wouldn't accept that." The owners, a family of five who purchased the house in 2020 with a passing Title V by engineer Darren McInnis, must install the new tank, obtain a certificate of compliance, and provide an as-built sketch before the town will issue an occupancy permit.