Essex Planning Board Unanimously Backs All Nine Zoning Articles for May Town Meeting

ESSEX — April 16, 2025 — Essex Planning Board votes 7-0 on all nine zoning articles bound for May 5 Annual Town Meeting. The board, chaired by Lisa O'Donnell, unanimously recommended support for every article on the warrant at its April 16 public hearing, including Article 21, which would require mixed-use buildings in the downtown district to devote at least 950 square feet or 30 percent of gross floor area — whichever is larger — to non-residential use on the first floor, and Article 22, which corrects a boundary error to add an approximately 66-by-33-foot parcel on Southern Avenue to the downtown district. Former six-term board member Wesley Burnham raised an unresolved ambiguity about how the 30 percent building-frontage rule in Article 21 would apply to corner lots, prompting O'Donnell to acknowledge the language "needs to be clarified." The board also voted 7-0 to adopt a revised fee schedule that shifts the cost of Gloucester Daily Times public hearing notices and abutter-notice postage directly to applicants rather than the general fund, and to amend subdivision rules to remove a per-frontage-foot fee formula in favor of a reference to the current fee schedule — a change Burnham warned could allow developers to file large-potential subdivision plans for as little as $500.