Gloucester boards order outside review of Sargent Street junkyard road

A plan to build a road into the former Linsky junkyard off Sargent Street drew a full auditorium to Gloucester's Planning Board on Oct. 1, and the city's Conservation Commission took up the same land six days later. Both boards voted to hire an outside engineer to review the plan before they decide anything.

What happened

• Energy North Inc. asked the Planning Board to approve "Haffner's Way," a 753 foot road from Schoolhouse Road and two commercial lots on about 9.5 acres of former junkyard land. No buildings or uses are proposed yet.
• More than a dozen neighbors and three city councilors spoke against the plan, most of them worried about a fuel storage depot described in a 2023 engineering report in the application.
• Energy North's attorney said on the record: "We're not going to build a bulk fuel plant there."
• The Planning Board voted to order a peer review and continued the hearing to Nov. 5. The Conservation Commission did the same with its wetlands filing and continued to Nov. 4.
• The land is under a state use limitation because of old contamination. Digging the road will need a cleanup plan approved by the state before any work starts, the company's team said.

What is proposed

The land sits between the MBTA tracks, Gloucester Crossing and the homes on Gale Road, Sargent Street and Millett Street. The applicant's attorney said the lots have been vacant for years, with two old buildings, squatters and a past fire. The plan would extend an existing 288 foot paved stub from Schoolhouse Road with about 465 feet of new road ending in a cul de sac, with sidewalks, street lights, water, sewer, gas and electric lines, and a stormwater basin next to the wetland. One lot would be about 2.2 acres and the other about 6.6 acres. A fifth parcel on the agenda, 46 Millett St., was dropped because the seller does not own it.

The road needs waivers from the city's subdivision rules for a collector street: an 8 percent grade instead of 6, a 50 foot right of way instead of 60, 28 feet of pavement instead of 32, and a length of 753 feet instead of 600.

The company's traffic engineer studied a made up example of two industrial buildings totaling 35,450 square feet and found about 17 trips in each peak hour, which he called too small to need any road changes. City Planner Gregg Cademartori said the review should look at heavier uses too, since the land is zoned general industrial, and said the existing stub road was never reviewed as a subdivision road and no one knows what is under it.

The fuel depot question

The application includes a geotechnical report prepared for Energy North in October 2023. A Gale Road neighbor chosen to speak for the neighborhood said that report describes an 80,000 gallon heating oil tank, a 20,000 gallon diesel tank and three 30,000 gallon propane tanks. She asked the board to make the company say in writing whether bulk fuel storage is planned, and asked for a map of the contaminated area, stated hours of operation and an environmental justice analysis for a neighborhood the state counts as one.

The attorney said the old concept plan "has not moved forward" and could not be built on the two lots, and that any future use would need site plan review. After nearly an hour of public comment, he went further: "I can tell you definitively and commit on the record that we're not going to build a bulk fuel plant there."

A board member said the concern is that a road and lots get approved now and a fuel depot comes back later, and that the board does not approve generic subdivisions without knowing what goes on the ground. Another member asked for a single list of all waivers and for trees on both sides of the street.

Former Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said the city promised the neighborhood no more development when Gloucester Crossing was built. Councilors Marjorie Grace and Dylan Benson and Councilor Patti-Ann Page, online, said they were speaking as private citizens and urged the board to find out what is in the ground and what the lots would be used for.

What the Conservation Commission heard

The commission's filing covers only work within 100 feet of the wetland, a red maple swamp at the toe of the old fill. The company's wetland scientist said no wetland would be filled, and that the yard was a junkyard until about 1995 and a recycling center until about 2000. A licensed site professional said the state's activity and use limitation allows commercial use and requires a soil management plan if more than about 20 cubic yards of soil are moved; the attorney had put that number at 30 at the Planning Board.

A neighbor read from a city Health Department letter that says the end of the road, the stormwater basin and a catch basin about 8 feet deep fall inside the restricted area, and that test holes were full of trash, car parts, tires and rebar. Commissioner William Cook said the whole roadway area should be tested before any grading, not when digging starts. Commissioner Dave Sargent said the site is the north end of what was once the 1,500 acre Great Harbor Swamp and asked how the drainage design was built on test pits that found no natural soil. The chair listed conditions he would want, including copies of every state cleanup filing, an independent site professional, wildlife friendly street lights and plantings between the road and the wetland. The city's conservation agent said the soil pits did not reach below the concrete cap on the site.

What was decided

• Planning Board, Oct. 1: peer review of the Haffner's Way plan at the applicant's expense, motion by Jane Remsen, second by Beverly Bookin, all in favor by voice vote.
• Planning Board: public hearing continued to Nov. 5, motion by Remsen, second by Douglas Cook, all in favor.
• Planning Board: started a zoning amendment to Section 3.2.2 so downtown multifamily buildings follow the same setbacks as commercial buildings, with 500 square feet of lot area per unit, all in favor. A watershed overlay amendment was held until a map is ready.
• Conservation Commission, Oct. 7: peer review of the wetlands filing, 4 to 0.
• Conservation Commission: hearing continued to Nov. 4, 4 to 0.

What happens next

• The city will pick the peer reviewer and the applicant pays for it. The reviewer will not test the soil itself; the site stays under the state's cleanup program.
• The Planning Board plans a site visit before the weather turns, and the Conservation Commission asked to join it. Its Oct. 15 meeting was expected to be canceled.
• Nov. 4, 5:30 p.m.: Conservation Commission, Rose Baker Center. Nov. 5, 5 p.m.: Planning Board, Kyrouz Auditorium, City Hall. Written comments can be filed with the city clerk's office and become part of the record.

Where to find the records

• Planning Board agendas and minutes and Conservation Commission agendas and minutes on the city website.
• October 2026 past meetings, with both recordings.

Earlier coverage: Gloucester planners take up Sargent Street subdivision Thursday as council panels weigh police grants (Oct. 1), which previewed both hearings. Gloucester gets $124,300 to rezone Railroad Avenue for housing (Oct. 17), the Planning Board subcommittee's housing work. Gloucester adopts Housing Compass (Oct. 2), the plan behind the downtown zoning change. Gloucester Dogtown survey: $300,000, city should pay, DPW says (Oct. 17), with the Long Beach item from the same commission meeting.

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched both meetings online and checked names against the agendas and the city's board rosters. Dollar figures and measurements are as stated by the applicant's team on the recordings; the written plans are in the city's records. These are our meeting notes, not the boards' minutes.