WILTON – Appeals board members unanimously approved a variance allowing a man to place a camper on the shore of Pease Pond.

Reading from meeting minutes, Town Manager Peter Nielsen said Harold Stone was granted a variance Wednesday to place his trailer 70 feet from the edge of the pond rather than the state-mandated 100 feet for structures in shoreland zones.

The board found that the trailer, placed on the Munson Road site seasonally, was not a structure but rather there temporarily. Without taking extreme measures of moving several large boulders, the camper is placed as far as possible from the shoreline on an existing road. Board members felt that allowing Stone to leave the trailer there during the camping season would cause less environmental damage than requiring him to move it to the 100-foot mark.

Code Enforcement Officer Paul Montague said Tuesday that state officials told him they would agree with the finding.