North End Waterfront Neighborhood Council meeting - May 2022

NEWNC held its May meeting Monday night.

Candidates

There are six open seats on the council and six candidates to fill them. Two of the candidates are new and four are returning. The new candidates are Kendra Birardi of Salem Street and Amy Pellutro who lives on Cooper*. Elections are this Saturday. NorthEnd.page would like to express utmost gratitude to these residents for volunteering their time and energy.

47-48 Snow Hill

Owner Ryan Meadows and his family are looking to add 18' to the height of the existing structure. They'll need a variance for this because the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of the property, like all the properties in the North End, will continue to be outside the set bounds. Some abutters used this opportunity to strongly oppose the project.

The proposed structure at 47-48 Snowhill

The owner of 53 Hull Street, Bill Verdi, went so far as to have his own architect create renderings of the view from his roof before and after the proposed project. The Council president also noted that the same owner had invited him over to see his current view prior to the meeting - an offer which he accepted and seemed moved by considering he encouraged the 53 Hull Street owner to also invite the petitioner over to witness the same view.

The same owner read letters provided by other abutters that couldn't make the meeting. One of the opposition letters was from a family that described how they simply moved out of the North End as their family grew.

Mary McGee, a direct party-wall-sharing abutter to 47-48 Snowhill and member of the opposition, came to the meeting prepared with the fact that the petitioner also owns a home in Plymouth.

Council member Kevin Fleming was the sole member of the council to responded to the opposition directly stating that he had a hard time voting to oppose a project that would keep a family in the neighborhood. "You don't get automatic veto power just because you've been here X number of years."

The unrecorded meeting became hard to follow at that point. MacGee's husband, Thomas Schiavoni, brought up the decade-old proposal to develop 585 Commercial (which he said he marched against). Another expressed that he was extremely offended by Kevin's statement.

The council ultimately voted to delay voting to give the petitioner and abutters a chance to work out their differences. Meadows expressed that he wasn't optimistic that the opposition would come to the table in good faith, but agreed to attempt. Council-member Marie Simboli suggested that maybe the removal of the roof deck from the proposal would be enough to appease them.

Amazingly, Bill Verdi, owner of 53 Hull Street and vocal member of the opposition to addition at 27-48 Hull Street, proposed an eerily similar addition to his building in 2002.

2002 for 53 Hull Street from Bill Verdi

Verdi was granted the required variances, but the project was never executed. His neighbors at 46 Snowhill, Thomas Schiavoni and Marie MacGee, declared themselves aggrieved and appealed the zoning board's decision. You can read all about the shenanigans here. 

*The meeting was not recorded as it usually is and I unfortunately wasn't able to take copious notes. I suspect I have misspelled at least one of the candidates names. Please use the comment section or contact form to correct me.