Gloucester Planning Board Recommends Cutting ZBA Residency Requirement to One Year

GLOUCESTER -- June 26, 2025, Gloucester Planning Board votes to recommend easing ZBA residency requirement from three years to one. Vice Chair Jane Remsen chaired the June 26 meeting in the absence of Chair Rick Noonan, guiding a unanimous vote to recommend that the City Council amend Gloucester Zoning Ordinance Section 1.4.1, not by deleting the three-year residency requirement for Zoning Board of Appeals members, as a council order had proposed, but by reducing it to one year. Planning Director Greg Katamatori told the board the impetus was a specific quorum problem: current ZBA candidates do not meet the three-year floor. One public commenter, Beverly Palmachi of 8 Commonwealth Avenue, opposed any reduction, saying "there's a lot to know about the city before making pretty serious decisions." The board also continued, for the second time, a public hearing on 20 Main LLC's two-lot definitive subdivision at 20 Main Street to August 6, after peer reviewer James Pearson of Weston and Sampson identified four unresolved stormwater issues, including undersized eight-inch drainage pipes and missing nitrogen and phosphorus calculations, and applicant's engineer Peter Ogren of Hayes Engineering requested waivers the board was not yet prepared to grant.