Haverhill is in line to get its first bed and breakfast lodging house.
Before a standing room only audience, the Haverhill City Council Tuesday night voted unanimously Tuesday to grant Maryam Salehi-Ala-Yamin a license to operate a small four-bedroom inn at 421 E. Broadway on the condition she live on the premises and any events she holds for guests other than her lodgers be limited to 30.
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 that require a tent in the yard would be disruptive to the rural character of the neighborhood. They instructed her to return with a more modest proposal.
Salehi-Ala-Yamin also planned to operate the business while living next door, but the city’s legal counsel noted zoning regulations require proprietors to live in the home.
After Salehi-Ala-Yamin agreed to new restrictions, councilors voted to award the special permit the newly christened innkeeper needs to operate in the city. While the issue drew nearly 50 spectators, Council President Timothy J. Jordan limited public comment to five speakers in the interest of time.
When it came time to vote, at-large Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan urged his fellow councilors to allow the new business, noting that in his opinion, Haverhill should support initiatives such as Salehi-Ala-Yamin’s. He praised her investment in a new idea.
“She’s certainly shown us through this process and all of us who have visited this house realize that this in not going to be a party house. It is not that type of a place. This is something Haverhill has never had. And it’s time to give it a try,” Sullivan said.
In addition to requiring Salehi-Ala-Yamin to live in the house and reduce the number of guests at parties and events, she is prohibited from erecting large event tents in the yard, ordered to keep any parties within the confines of the house, install additional screening between her properties and her neighbors and pay for the cost of additional traffic signs on East Broadway as suggested by the Haverhill Police Department.
Ward 1 Councilor Ralph T. Basiliere praised Salehi-Ala-Yamin for her willingness to compromise to make the project more attractive and win Council approval.
“I do like this project. I always have. I think there are appropriate parking and traffic controls and these concessions, again I am going to say for it the third time, are a huge deal tonight,” Basiliere said.