02.24.2025
Washington Street Design Meets Approval
Categories: News, Press Releases
IPSWICH — By John P. Muldoon at The Local News
Pleased with design changes to the proposed apartment building on Washington Street, the planning board has moved on to a review of traffic and stormwater.
The board met last week with Harborlight Homes, a Beverly-based provider of low-income housing.
The company has applied to build 52 affordable units on the site of the EBSCO property at 2 Washington Street. It would maintain parking and a community garden across the street at number 1.
After input from the planning board and design review board, architect Stefano Basso of SV Design in Beverly said his goal was to evoke a “mill/warehouse look and feel.”
His latest design changed the front entrance, added a stair tower, and added some bump-ins and bump-outs.
Reviewing changes to date, Basso said the first proposed entrance was “a little too modern.”
The second was “universally disliked,” he added. Planning director Alan Manoian said to laughs that it looked like the entrance to a hospital emergency room.
“Thank you, Alan,” Basso replied in good humor. “I think the pendulum has swung back to the right spot. I hope you all agree.”
Because the development would be mixed use, a commercial space is planned at one side of the building.
At the last planning board meeting, the nonprofit Three Sisters Garden Project said it would take over the space when it becomes available.
“The design has developed a lot,” planning board member Jennifer Crawford said. “I think this is moving in the right direction.” She said she particularly liked the way the stair tower looked on the front of the building.
“I commend everything that you’ve done. Every change has been better. It’s a fantastic project,” agreed board member Tom Hammond.
Public
Although there were supporters in the audience, the only member of the public who spoke against it was next-door neighbor Dan Rowland.
He said the proposal is “just too damn big” and compared it to less-dense developments in Hamilton, Rowley, and Agawam Village.
Rowland called the intersection at Depot Square “very dangerous,” particularly in snow —when “everybody slides into Spice Thai.”
He said he would like to move “somewhere warmer” at some point but predicted the new building would lower his property value at 8 Washington Street.
Later in the meeting, however, Manoian predicted the opposite.
Looking at the quality, landscaping, design, and Harborlight’s “reputation for excellent management and responsibility, I actually believe this building … is going to up value of property all around it,” he said.
Traffic
Harborlight’s traffic engineer Keri Pike presented the results of her study. She said there are 3,742 daily trips on Washington Street.
Of those, a little over half, 1,960, drove toward Linebrook Road. Traffic during the morning peak saw 210 of those trips take place, according to Pike’s study.
She predicted the development would add another 14 trips in the morning and 24 in the evening.
“In essence, you are saying there would be no impact?” Crawford said. Pike said the evening increase would be about 10%.
Evening counts are higher than morning counts because people often come home and then realize they have to pick something up at the store or leave again for dinner, she said.
Legal question
Reviewing the site history, Manoian said it had been a railroad yard until the 1940s. Then it was a Grossman’s Lumber yard.
That burned on January 2, 1975. After that, the now-defunct Ipswich Chronicle built offices and a printing facility on the site.
EBSCO later became the owner. With many of its employees working from home, it is now in the process of divesting of the property.
“This was a heavy industry location,” Manoian said. During that phase, setbacks were 50 feet from neighbors.
The view from the railroad tracks (SV Design)
However, in the late 1980s, zoning was changed from industrial to commercial. Manoian said there was some question about the side setback required.
Rowland said a 50-foot setback from his property was originally recorded, and he asked for that to be maintained.
The Chronicle applied for the setback to be reduced to 25 feet in the 1980s, but that was denied by the ZBA at the time, Mainoian noted.
After he was asked by Hammond, Harborlight’s project manager Pat Connolly said that would kill the project.
The building is already 80 to 90 feet away from the property line, he said. Harborlight would have to reduce parking or the building’s size, he said.
With the question referred to lawyers, Manoian said, “It may be time to sort this out legally.”
Connolly disagreed. His lawyer told him that both zoning and the use have changed, he said. “I don’t see a connection to that old variance.”
The hearing will resume this week.