Gloucester ZBA Unanimously Approves Conversion of Vacant Lanesville Church to Four Units

GLOUCESTER — January 9, 2025 — Gloucester's Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved a special permit and multiple variances to convert the long-vacant Blue Church at 964 Washington Street in Lanesville into a four-unit residential building at its January 9 meeting. Attorney Sal Frontero, representing developer HB Development Corp. and principal David Barrett, argued that four units — two three-bedroom and two two-bedroom — are the only economically viable way to preserve the building, which has a 69.7-foot steeple that generates artificially large setback requirements under the city's height-adjusted zoning formula. Several neighbors spoke in favor of preservation, while Lauren Boudreaux-Stees of 4 Sanderson Court and Tom O'Malley of 960 Washington Street raised concerns about traffic on the narrow, unpaved Sanderson Court and the loss of green space in front of the building to a parking hammerhead. The board conditioned its 4-0 approval on a prohibition against parking in the hammerhead and on incorporating a signed neighbor agreement with abutter Tanya Molinsky covering fencing and cobblestone lot-line markers. The four-unit use still requires City Council approval. The board also reelected Joe Parisi as Chair, Catherine Schlichty as Vice Chair, and Michael Nyman as Secretary for 2025, and continued a petition by Prima Vega II LLC for 8 Gold Court to January 30 after determining that the seven-unit-to-six-unit conversion the applicant seeks exceeds the ZBA's jurisdictional authority and must go to the City Council.