Gloucester Zoning Board Continues Energy North Hearing, Cites Residential Access Concerns

GLOUCESTER -- February 27, 2025, Gloucester's Zoning Board of Appeals continued a frontage variance request by Energy North Incorporated to March 27, directing the company's attorney to explore Gale Road as an alternative access point before seeking relief on Sargent Street. Energy North is under agreement to purchase a cluster of five general industrial parcels near Blackburn Industrial Circle and needs to combine them into a single lot via an approval-not-required filing with the Planning Board, but the lead parcel at 40 Sargent Street has only about 20 feet of frontage against a required 65 feet. Chair Joe Parisi and member Catherine Schlichty said they could not support the variance without knowing the proposed use and without being convinced that access through the residential Sargent Street corridor was necessary, given what appeared on the city's GIS map to be substantial frontage available on Gale Road. "I personally am not willing to grant a variance without knowing what the use of the lot is," Parisi told attorney Harley Racee of the Rich May Law Firm. Racee agreed to raise the Gale Road question before the Planning Board the following week and return with written guidance from the Planning Director.