Haverhill City Council Again Considers Request to Move Zoning Line that Splits Adjacent Parcels

Haverhill City Hall. (WHAV News file photograph.)

Click image for Haverhill City Council agenda.

Haverhill city councilors tonight will consider another instance of consolidating adjacent parcels—this time in the Ward Hill Business Park—that are split across different zones.

A proposal to move the line between 33 acres in a business park zone and seven acres categorized as residential high density is described as “corrective” by city Economic Development and Planning Director William Pillsbury Jr. In a letter to city councilors, Pillsbury recommended approval, saying the zoning line cuts through a Neck Road parcel near Ferry Road.

“There is no apparent reason for the location of the zone line as common zoning practice places the zone line at a roadway edge, not a random location within the parcel,” he explained.

Pillsbury said the petitioner, Hardal, has accepted a number of conditions that would become part of a deed restriction. These are no vehicle access from Ferry Road unless required by the fire department and buffering and screening of the parcel following development to shield the view from Ferry Road.

Christine Kwitchoff told the Haverhill Planning Board, which heard the proposal last month, that the intent of the city’s new master plan is that buildings may rise up, but not outward.

Ferry Road resident Thomas G. Carbone opposed the change in a Sept. 5 letter to the board and City Council. Ben Thompson, also of Ferry Road, asked that the land be preserved as farmland and noted Ferry Road narrows to one lane of traffic in the winter.

Last month, the City Council approved a similar request to move a zoning line at the corner of Boston and Freeman Streets designated as residential medium while adjacent parcels owned by the family since 1918 were zoned as residential high density.

The Haverhill City Council meets tonight at 7, remotely and in-person at the Theodore A. Pelosi Jr. Council Chambers, room 202, Haverhill City Hall, 4 Summer St., As a public service, 97.9 WHAV plans to carry the meeting live.

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