Gloucester City Council approves 6 homes on Day Court off Essex Ave

The Gloucester City Council on Tuesday approved a plan for six new homes on Day Court, a narrow private road off Essex Avenue in West Gloucester.

The vote was 8 to 0. Council Vice President Sean Nolan was absent for the vote.

The City Council is the city's elected law making board. Bigger housing projects in some neighborhoods need its special permit. The council can attach rules, called conditions, that owners must follow for as long as the homes stand.

What will be built

The developer, Billiken Investments LLC, plans two buildings with three homes each on a lot of more than 2 acres next to the train tracks. Each home has three bedrooms and a two car garage. Council papers say they will be sold as condos.

An old, run down house on the land will be torn down, so the city gains five homes.

The council also let the two buildings sit 20 feet apart. The rules call for 51.2 feet, their heights added together.

The road and the rain

Neighbors worried most about the road. Day Court is paved only 10 feet wide, and rain runs off it into nearby yards. Two neighbors wrote letters about traffic and stormwater.

The plan widens the road to 12 feet at Essex Avenue and to more than 16 feet about 150 feet in, so two cars can pass. A 2 foot wide trench filled with crushed stone will run along that stretch to soak up rain.

Councilor Patti-Ann Page wanted the owners to file a drainage inspection report every other year. Council President Tony Gross said there was little to inspect. "It is just a ditch with gravel in it," he said. Page dropped the idea. Instead the council voted 8 to 0 to require the owners, and anyone who owns the homes later, to maintain the drainage system forever.

Other conditions require low plants along the first 50 feet so drivers on Day Court and neighboring Homans Court can see each other, a 6 foot wooden fence after that, repairs to any construction damage on Homans Court and notice to neighbors before work starts.

Page also asked for a fire hydrant on the site. The developer's attorney said the Fire Department will decide that before a building permit is issued. Page said she hoped firefighters take "a maximum look at this and not a minimal look."

Also at the meeting

• $1 million, new source. In June the council took $1 million from a savings account meant for big, long lasting purchases to hold down this year's property taxes. City Auditor Kenny Costa said the city expected to buy the new trash bins. But the signed contract with Casella does not include that, and Casella owns the bins. So the council voted 8 to 0 to take the money from the city's main savings account instead. Asked whether the contract price went up, Costa said, "That I don't know." Councilors asked for an answer soon. See this and other money votes in our Follow the money tracker.
• Other money. In one 9 to 0 vote, the council approved items its Budget and Finance Committee backed Oct. 8, including police grants of $95,636.25 and $102,983.
• Election. The warrant for the Nov. 3 state election passed 8 to 0.
• Fishbox Derby. Street closures moved to Sunday, Oct. 18, 9 to 0.

Coastal lot sizes

Councilor Scott Memhard has proposed a change to the city's zoning rules for the RC-40 zone. RC-40 means Coastal Residential. In Gloucester, most of that zone is on Eastern Point and along the shore near Magnolia.

The change is about the minimum lot size per home. That is how much land the rules require for each home on a lot. Today, each home in the RC-40 zone needs at least 20,000 square feet of land, a little less than half an acre. The plan would double that to 40,000 square feet, a little less than an acre. A lot big enough for two homes today would be big enough for only one.

On Tuesday, Gross said the plan is now back at the council's Planning and Development Committee. That committee must first vote on withdrawing it "without prejudice." That would let it come back later. The council's public hearing was continued to Oct. 27. Nothing has been decided.

The shaded areas show Gloucester's RC-40 coastal residential zone. MassGIS parcel records list 275 lots in the zone, about 465 acres in all. Zoning lines from MassGIS parcel records; check the city's official zoning map before relying on them.

What happens next

The council meets next on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 6:30 p.m. in Kyrouz Auditorium at City Hall, 9 Dale Ave.

How you can take part: Meetings are open in person and on Zoom; the link is on the agenda. Anyone can speak for up to 3 minutes under oral communications about city business not on the agenda. On Zoom, use the raised hand button, or press star 9 on a phone.

Earlier coverage: Gloucester councilors' planning committee backs six homes on Day Court (Oct. 14) and Before Tuesday's Gloucester City Council (Oct. 11).

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the meeting online and checked names against the agenda and the board's roster. This story was produced with the help of AI tools and checked against the documents listed below. If you see an error, tell us at [email protected].