Gloucester ZBA allows used-car sales applicant to withdraw after votes fall short

GLOUCESTER -- April 10, 2025, Gloucester Zoning Board accepts withdrawal of used-car sales permit as short board leaves applicant without needed votes. Shane Flam, operator of Grove Street Auto at 95 Rear Maplewood Avenue, withdrew his application for a use variance to sell used vehicles after Chair Joe Parisi told him a full four-vote majority was impossible with only four of five members seated. Attorney Deborah Ellison of Ellison Law Office had argued in opposition on behalf of abutter Woodnut LLC that the legal standard under GZO 1.7.2, requiring no other feasible economic use, could not be met because auto repair already operates legally on the same lot, and that any variance would run with the land regardless of ownership. Flam, who said he had waited months for the hearing and disclosed he is in contract to purchase the building from owner James Pratt, agreed to withdraw without prejudice rather than face a two-year bar on reapplication. The board also opened a hearing on a plan by 4 River Road, LLC to demolish a flood-ravaged Annisquam house and replace it with a two-family dwelling for the seven-generation Stuppe family, where immediate abutters at 9 Arlington Street testified the project was "too big, too close, and not right."