The Haverhill city council holds a public hearing Tuesday for a proposed new inner-city housing development at a vacant Auburn Street lot.
On the council agenda, Eric V. Dorman is seeking a special permit to construct a four-unit, multifamily dwelling, to be sold as condominiums, at the formerly numbered 69 Auburn St. The plan has received a conditional favorable recommendation from the Haverhill Planning Board and from Economic Development and Planning Director William Pillsbury. The zoning board of appeals also previously approved it. According to Pillsbury, council approval is needed before a definitive plan for the project is filed with the planning board.
“Specifically, I recommend that the council as part of its approval of a special permit include as conditions the comments from the letters of the city departments; any additional comments/conditions deemed necessary by the city council; and an umbrella condition that the project comply with all the requirements of zoning code 255-94,” Pillsbury wrote to the council.
Among the requirements, the permit request “will not impair the integrity or character of the district or adjoining zones nor be detrimental to the health, morals or welfare” and conforms with “goals and policies of the master plan.” An additional condition recommended by Pillsbury calls for the developer to “comply with all of the additional requirements of the City’s subdivision regulations for water and sewer and drainage improvements.”
In a brief filed in support of the developer’s plan, Attorney Robert D. Harb, representing Dorman, said the project is “beneficial to the City and all its residents” as it would bring added tax revenue, be an improvement to the neighborhood and “will provide good quality housing in what has been a vacant, debris filled lot for many years.” Also, Harb said the plan is a 20 percent reduction of a previously granted special permit for a five-unit condominium development that was never built.
The Haverhill city council meets at 7 p.m., Tuesday, in council chambers at Haverhill City Hall.