Gloucester ZBA Approves All Eight Applications at Packed May Meeting

GLOUCESTER -- May 28, 2026, Gloucester's Zoning Board of Appeals granted all eight special permits and variances on its May 28 docket, with no applications denied or continued. Chair Joe Parisi led the board through applications spanning a waterfront soaking pool at 50 Raleigh Shore Road, a full demolition and rebuild at 21 Ferry Hill Road for Stanley and Jill Nicolak, a foundation repair and shed relocation at 18 River Road, a sunroom addition at 36 G Avenue, a garage-connection project at 10 Wingaersheek Road, a small addition at 15 LaRose Avenue, a duplex reconfiguration at 300 Main Street for PRS Properties LLC, and a second-floor expansion at 127 Wheeler Street. All votes were unanimous, though the Wingaersheek Road application required the board to locate floodplain square-footage calculations on the site plan mid-hearing after key data was missing from the submitted packet, ultimately confirming the addition at 89 square feet fell well below the applicable 10 percent threshold. Before adjourning, member Michael Nyman announced plans for a subcommittee meeting to review Section 2.4.4 of the zoning ordinance, citing the frequency with which nonconformity provisions arose across a single evening's agenda.