Haverhill Council Agrees with Bradford Condominium Complex Changes, Votes Approval

Architect’s original rendering of three proposed condominium buildings on Railroad Street.

The Haverhill City Council last night approved a handful of requested changes to plans for the construction of 48 condominium units in three buildings along the Merrimack River in Bradford.

The project, to be built on 1.4 acres of land at 38 Railroad St., won Council approval in 2021. As plans developed, however, some necessary design changes came up and were extensive enough to require re-approval by the City Council. Attorney Paul A. Magliocchetti represents the project developer Ernest Cioto.

“Some changes to the building were requested by the building inspector to meet certain code requirements and the building inspector’s office and Planning Director Pillsbury determined that some of the changes that were required constituted a change under the new ordinance that you passed a few months back,” he said.

Those changes included the elimination of skylights above stairs, the addition of rooftop structures to allow for elevators in the buildings, improving windows, removing exterior decks and replacing the material to be used for roofing.

David Choi, the architect for the project told councilors these changes were all developed to provide better building safety and greater energy efficiency and not as a way to cut expenses for the developer.

“We are trying to construct a net-zero building, a much more energy efficient building and Massachusetts is going to adopt new energy code and so we want to be up to the times with the energy code. The features that are eliminated is because of life safety and energy code,” he explained.

Councilors said they were pleased with the new changes and improvements with Councilor John A Michitson offering kudos for the attempts at utilizing non-polluting electrical energy.

“You should be commended for trying to move forward because this is what’s going on all over the world,” he said.

Ultimately, the Council voted 7-1 to approve proposed modifications with Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan as the only opposing vote and Councilor Joseph J. Bevilacqua absent from the meeting.

While Sullivan did not explain his reason for a no vote, when the Council voted on the project two years ago, the councilor expressed his dissatisfaction with a development of that magnitude without taking care of infrastructure issues, such as road improvements, first.

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