The applicant requesting permission to open a bed & breakfast in a renovated Victorian on East Broadway faces a new hurdle—either live there or get a zoning variance.
City Solicitor Lisa L. Mead told the Haverhill City Council in a letter the proposal by Maryam Salehi-Ala-Yamin for 421 E. Broadway that she live next door does not meet the city’s current zoning standard. Mead wrote, “. . .the owner must literally occupy the home where the rooms are being let.” Otherwise, she would be operating a hotel, Mead noted, adding hotels are not permitted in a rural residential zone. Mead’s ruling came after abutter Lisa Onyon raised the issue of residency, prompting Ward 1 Councilor Ralph T. Basiliere to pursue the matter with Mead.
Ward 4 City Councilor Melissa J. Lewandowski, who initially said she favored just the bed and breakfast plan, told WHAV after the meeting that she is disappointed Mead was weighing in on a basic zoning issue at the 11th hour.
“The global question for me is why our planning and legal departments didn’t flag this issue when it was first presented,” Lewandowski said. “I feel badly for the amount of time we on the City Council have spent poring over documents and holding meetings, the time the abutters have taken to weigh in as well as the time the applicant has put in it. But it’s clear that we as a council cannot act on the special permit until the residency issue is resolved.”
If Salahi-Ala-Yamin wants to pursue her original plan, she must request a zoning variance from the city’s Board of Appeals.
Mead’s opinion followed an earlier letter to the Council from city Planning Director Jacki Byerley, who wrote May 22 that “Under city zoning, a bed and breakfast establishment is an allowed use by special permit within the district.” Byerley did not address the issue of the owner’s residency.
The City Council was set to resume a public hearing on Salahi-Ala-Yamin’s application for a special permit at Tuesday’s meeting, but instead voted to continue the matter to Tuesday, Aug. 25, after Ala-Yamin’s lawyer said his client wanted to make sure the full board was in attendance. Basiliere was absent Tuesday. Mead’s letter was not discussed.
When the proposal was initially raised at the Council’s June 30 meeting, Salehi-Ala-Yamin said she hoped to host small weddings and other parties with up to 50 guests in addition to renting four rooms and hosting culinary classes and tea parties. However, several city councilors agreed with opposing abutters that parties which required a tent in the yard would be disruptive to the rural character of the neighborhood and so instructed her to return with a more modest proposal.
Salehi-Ala-Yamin’s plan generated several dozen letters and at least two petitions from neighbors and friends, both for and against allowing the bed & breakfast operation. If passed, it would be Haverhill’s first.
The house in question was built in 1817 by Nathaniel Johnson for his bride. For most of its history the house was part of a small farm which overlooked the Merrimack River. In recent years, the house fell into disrepair and was condemned by the city. Salehi-Ala-Yamin renovated it after purchasing it.