WILTON – Another hurdle to save the Farmington Diner was passed Thursday when the Planning Board granted a permit to temporarily store the structure.

New owner Rachel Jackson Hodsdon needed the permit because the structure was more than 500 square feet and was being moved to a commercial lot, Code Enforcement Officer Paul Montague told the board.

Jackson Hodsdon runs The Nonprofit Information Center at the corner of Cemetery Road and Route 2 in East Wilton.

The lot is large enough to store the 16- by 52-foot stainless steel portion of the diner, he said. The building will not be set up with utilities but rather be mothballed for now, he added.

Jackson Hodsdon couldn’t say how long it would be in storage.

“I’m under the gun to get it off the (present) lot and move it somewhere else to keep it from being destroyed,” she told the board. “The longer it sits the more likely it will be destroyed. I wouldn’t move it at that price ($15,000) to just destroy it at the new site.”

Jackson Hodsdon bought the building from Rite-Aid developer Bruce Carrier on Feb. 12 for $1, which he gave back to her, she said. The weather has since interfered with Nickerson Building Movers’ ability to relocate the building by today, the date her sale agreement with Carrier calls for the diner to be off the Intervale site. Construction crews have been working around the diner on the new store.

She told the board she was granted one more business day and has until Monday to move it.

If Jackson Hodsdon wants to reopen the diner as a restaurant, Montague told the board he outlined some things she will have to do, such as building a kitchen on the back, adding handicap accessible restrooms, resolve drainage issues and parking and get permits from the state fire marshal and health department.

She will also have to return to the board for a site plan review to put the diner back in use, he said.