Gloucester Planning Board unanimously approves East Main Street parking and housing project

GLOUCESTER -- February 6, 2025, Gloucester Planning Board approves East Main Street housing conversion, delays downtown subdivision to April. The board voted 5-0 Thursday to approve a site plan for 64 East Main Street, where property owner Denise Merlino is converting the shuttered Zeke's Diner into a two-bedroom residential unit and adding a four-car carport to a building that already holds two apartments, bringing the total to three units. Architect Thad Samasco and civil engineer John Judd presented the design, which requires about three feet of hillside excavation for the carport and a river-stone infiltration trench for stormwater; Planning Director Greg Katamatori reported no engineering concerns from the city's public works department. The board also continued a public hearing on a two-lot definitive subdivision at 20 Main Street, attorney Sean McCormick described it explicitly as a "zoning freeze" plan intended to protect the property while a separate 24-unit multifamily project works through litigation, to April 17, pending a peer review by Weston and Sampson that has sat unfunded since a scope was developed in April 2024. Member Beverly Bookin pressed McCormick on why the subdivision was necessary, calling it "a solution for a non-problem," though she said she saw no harm in approving it once peer review is complete. In a lengthy working session, consultant Laura Smead of JM Goldson guided the board through the final undecided strategy items in the city's draft 10-year comprehensive plan, with the board agreeing to incorporate a 1-percent-for-art standard into municipal construction projects and to reframe a contested Dogtown composting-facility strategy around making all park entry points welcoming and safe.