Haverhill City Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan.
City services, such as winter snow removal or water and sewer maintenance, will come in the future to residents within the Scotland Heights subdivision, off route 110 and near the Methuen city line.
Haverhill city councilors Tuesday night gave unanimous support, in separate 9 to 0 votes, to accept Tersolo Road, as well as a portion of Snow Road, as public ways. The requests by Scotland Heights Realty Trust Trustee Michael Crowe, Boxford, were postponed by the council last month pending completion of requirements for favorable recommendations by the city engineer and Haverhill Planning Board. Crowe told councilors, including Thomas J. Sullivan, prior known access and driveway improvement issues raised by several neighbors have been resolved.
Sullivan: “Is this the area there were a couple of neighbors that were waiting for some improvements to their driveway or their access to the road?”
Crowe: “Yes.”
Sullivan: “Has everything been done?”
Crowe: “As far as I know, yes.”
Sullivan: “And they’re not here tonight, so that’s a good thing.”
Crowe: “Correct. Shortly after that meeting – that was, I think, about a year ago – we had repaired the entrance to their driveway.”
Sullivan: “Great. So everyone’s satisfied now.”
Crowe: “As far as I know, yes.”
Crowe also said further work is ongoing to prepare other subdivision streets for city acceptance.
“We’ve been on this project for some number of years and still working on it. We have another piece but we’re trying to get caught up and get some of the old streets and portions of them, up to where we’re working now, accepted,” Crowe added.
Haverhill City Councilor William J. Macek.
In other action, councilors unanimously accepted documentation, including meeting minutes, which support recommendations by the Planning and Development Committee to, among other things, require council approval of special permit applications for multi-unit housing conversions outside existing zoning rules. Last Thursday, several Highlands residents and committee members, including Chairman William J. Macek, voiced concerns over recent conversions at larger, single-family homes, not subject to city council approval. The council is expected to formally vote at an upcoming meeting on that, as well as recommendations to bring an “expanded notification” system to neighbors within .25 miles of such projects; and that the “full council go on record as supporting the formation of a Highlands Historic District.”