Gloucester wetlands board tells a Wingaersheek owner to plan for replanting a cleared dune

Gloucester's Conservation Commission spent most of its Oct. 21 meeting on two coastal properties with unfinished business, a Wingaersheek Road home where trees and dune grass were cleared without a permit and a harbor boatyard that wants to replace up to 50 pilings. Both come back Nov. 4. Most of the rest of the agenda was continued to November, as the posted agenda said it would be.

What happened

• The owner of a Wingaersheek Road home filed to renovate the house and legalize a gravel parking area. The conservation agent showed before and after photos of large trees, shrubs and beach grass removed from the dune. The commission asked for a restoration plan and said it cannot close out the 1990s permit on the house until the lot is put back.
• A boatyard on Montgomery Place asked to replace up to 50 pilings under its piers over several years. The commission wants a plan showing where the piles are before it votes.
• A small addition on piers at a home on Essex Avenue was approved with 80 square feet of new plantings, and a rebuilt pool cabana on Hesperus Avenue was approved with 506 square feet of salt tolerant plantings. Both votes were unanimous, from the meeting video.
• The 26 unit Magnolia Avenue subdivision stays continued to Nov. 18. The Kondelin Road waste station and the Sargent Street road plan are on the Nov. 4 agenda.

A cleared dune on Wingaersheek Road

Engineer Richard Salvo presented plans for a second floor addition within the house's footprint, new junipers along one side, flood openings in a garage that was supposed to have them, and an after the fact gravel parking area by the road. The house was built in the late 1990s and never received its certificate of compliance, the paper that closes out a wetlands permit.

The agent then showed aerial photos and the listing photos from September 2025 next to photos from this fall. Several large trees along the front, the shrubs along the driveway and a wide stretch of dune grass behind the house were gone, and some sand may have been removed. The whole lot is coastal dune and part of a barrier beach, he said, and part of it is mapped plover habitat.

Commissioners asked for the resource lines and a limit of work drawn on the plan, a restoration plan for the vegetation, and a look at what the original order of conditions required, including a ramp with one foot of clearance under the garage so sand can move. Chair Peter Vetere said unauthorized clearing would otherwise be handled with an enforcement order and restoration. Salvo said he had not known the extent of the removal until that night and asked to walk the site with the agent. The hearing was continued to Nov. 4 at his request.

50 pilings at a boatyard

The boatyard owner said he has replaced pilings under his piers as needed since 1975 under his state Chapter 91 waterways license, and asked for approval of up to 50 over more than one year. A neighbor asked for a plan showing each pile. Commissioners said the same: the permit covers a known amount of work, so they need a pile location plan with tide lines, a silt curtain during the work, vibratory installation, full removal of old piles so stubs do not become a hazard, and the building permits the building commissioner now requires for pile work.

The agent said the commission could write a standing order, like the one it uses in the state Designated Port Area, that lets the yard replace piles in kind with notice to the harbormaster, building commissioner and conservation office, renewed every three years. The filing has no state file number yet, so it was continued to Nov. 4.

Approved

• Essex Avenue addition. A 12 by 24 foot family room on piles replaces an 8 by 8 foot one, all in the coastal flood zone. Commissioners asked for plantings to make up for the roughly 80 square feet going over lawn, and the owners agreed to plant 80 square feet along the back fence. Approved 4 to 0, from the meeting video.
• Hesperus Avenue cabana. The cabana approved in March moves landward out of the velocity zone, with a pervious patio and 253 square feet more hard surface, offset by 506 square feet of salt tolerant plantings with two years of monitoring. Approved 3 to 0, from the meeting video. The owner will close out the March permit with a no work certificate.
• Farrington Avenue. Two certificates of compliance for an elevated path, with conditions that stay with the property and a requirement to replace any plants that fail within two years. Approved 4 to 0.
• Estuary Way. A wetland line delineation, approved 4 to 0 once its state number arrived.

Enforcement

The agent expects a revised restoration plan for the dune at 137 Wingaersheek Road next week; he said sand is building up behind the storm wrack line there. A new violation letter went to another Wingaersheek property where a boat was stored in dune grass and a trench dug for a hose. On Landing Road, a houseboat is back on the marsh with an unpermitted float and stone fill, and the harbormaster doubts a mooring exists at that spot; the agent will issue a new violation notice.

What was decided

• Essex Avenue addition (NOI 028-3148): approved with 80 square feet of plantings, 4 to 0, from the meeting video.
• Hesperus Avenue cabana and patio (NOI 028-3166): approved with conditions, 3 to 0, from the meeting video.
• Estuary Way delineation (ANRAD 028-3167): approved, 4 to 0, from the meeting video.
• Farrington Avenue certificates of compliance: approved, 4 to 0, from the meeting video.
• Wingaersheek Road renovation and Montgomery Place pilings: continued to Nov. 4, from the meeting video.
• Oct. 7 minutes: approved as amended, 4 to 0, from the meeting video.

What happens next

• Wednesday, Nov. 4, 5:30 p.m.: next meeting, with the Wingaersheek Road and Montgomery Place hearings, the Kondelin Road waste station, the Sargent Street road and a Beachland Avenue delineation.
• Wednesday, Nov. 18: the Magnolia Avenue subdivision and two Wingaersheek Road rebuilds.

Where to find the records

• Conservation Commission revised agenda, Oct. 21
• Meeting recording, on the city's 2026 Past Meetings page
• Conservation Commission agendas and minutes

Earlier coverage: Wednesday on Cape Ann (Oct. 20), the agenda preview. Gloucester wetlands board OKs Little River pier with limits, pool, docks (Oct. 18), the Oct. 7 meeting. Gloucester boards order outside review of Sargent Street junkyard road (Oct. 18), the Sargent Street plan. Gloucester health board accepts Kondelin Road blasting study (Oct. 17), the waste station.

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the meeting online and checked names and file numbers against the revised agenda and the commission's roster on the city website. These are our meeting notes, not the city's minutes.