Councilor William J. Macek is chairman of the council’s Planning and Development Committee.
Haverhill City Councilor William J. Macek.
A Haverhill City Council subcommittee will meet in less than two weeks to study possible changes to the process in which developers or property owners obtain special permits or zoning changes for projects, including conversions of existing homes into multi-unit dwellings.
The city council’s Planning and Development Committee is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 21, in the council office, room 204, at Haverhill City Hall, according to Councilor William J. Macek, committee chairman. On the agenda, discussions “explore various possibilities for ‘expanded notification’ processes” and “zoning regulations for housing conversions and possible changes to protect integrity of existing property and neighborhoods.” Housing conversions and neighborhood impacts was filed jointly by Macek and Councilor Joseph J. Bevilacqua and sent to committee March 8 by the full council. During that meeting, Macek said there are “some discrepancies in the way the city handles developers” in, for example, converting larger single family homes in the Highlands neighborhood to multi-unit housing.
Haverhill School Commiteeman and Councilor Joseph J. Bevilacqua.
“Councilor Bevilacqua and I were sitting beside each other at a neighborhood meeting for the Highlands neighborhood group. And that’s where they brought up their concern about some of their large single family homes… they’re worried about some others that could be turned into anywhere from four to six units. And those don’t normally come before the city council for a special permit,” Macek said. “If you wanted to build three units, you would have to come before the city council for a special permit.
According to council documents, the “expanded notification” discussion, requested by Macek, was referred in July, 2015, to the Administration and Finance Committee, which transferred the item Feb. 2 to Planning and Development.
Another bad idea by Mr ninthth chair
Everything built now is duplex after duplex… Absolute shame and I’m glad to see (hopefully) he city council taking a look at this..
Seems Haverhill is always on the short end of the stick, group homes, state projects and the way they are handled, and the list could go on and on…
But at least we have our toters and a downtown parking plan!!
For an example of how out of control zoning is, the property on the corner of Hilldale and Monument that was approximately 1 acre and had one 3 bedroom home on it was developed and 6 duplexes townhouses added plus the existing home is still there. Thats one address on every 3,000 sq ft. Now it stands 13 units and 39 bedrooms. Thats going to require an entire extra classroom at the local school. The $16,000.00 per student far out weighs the $3,500.00 a year taxes on each unit.