New zoning urged for Danvers blast area
Residents seek curb on heights
By Steven Rosenberg, Globe Staff | January 14, 2007
For more than 200 years, industry and people have coexisted in Danversport. Now, two months after a paint factory blew apart and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes there, some residents are saying they no longer feel safe with industry in their backyards.
Local homeowners acknowledge that industry will probably never leave the congested blocks along Danvers' coastline but they are hoping that two zoning proposals that will be presented at the Jan. 29 Town Meeting will make their neighborhood a better place to live.
The proposals, which require a two-thirds vote from the 125 Town Meeting members, call for new and reconstructed buildings in Industrial-1 zoned neighborhoods like Danversport to be limited to 40 feet in height, and require a 5-foot landscape buffer between businesses and homes. Currently, buildings in the Danversport neighborhood can be 55 feet in height, and do not require a green buffer around their premises.
"We want to keep our views, and we don't want buildings 55 feet high next to homes," explained Andrea Daly, who proposed the zoning height restriction.
"We're chipping away at the industrial zoning," added Anne Marie Ruotolo, who proposed the landscape buffer.
Evan Belansky, principal planner for the town, said there are three 55-foot high buildings in Industrial-1 zones in Danvers, and none in the area near where the blast occurred.
According to the current Industrial-1 zoning, businesses -- like the former CAI company that exploded on Nov. 22 -- have the right to rebuild up to 55 feet. The original building was one story.
While neighbors have talked for years about rezoning the neighborhood where the blast occurred, little action has been taken. As one of the oldest industrial areas of the town, it was the site of the first nail manufacturing company in the country. It was known for its mills, privateers, and leather and brick factories.
Today, a jumble of warehouses and factories sit side by side with Capes and two-deckers in the blast area. Along the Waters River is a propane distributor. Within a quarter-mile sits a glue factory, and two gas lines run underground.
The Board of Selectmen has not taken a position on the proposed changes. But in a zoning report prepared for the town last spring, Stantec, a planning and engineering company, recommended a broader change to redevelop the area near the blast for mixed use. Stantec also recommended creating a new Waterfront Village District that would "discourage further industrial development" along the shoreline.
Selectman Michael Powers has not made a final decision on the proposed height reduction, but said he would support a motion that would decrease industry in the area.
"I'm inclined to support the removal of the industrial zone due to the high concentration of residential use, and also due to the beauty and the value of the waterfront land that can be better used to improve the quality of life for Danversport residents," he said.
Powers said the town is considering allocating funds to create a master plan along the coastline near the blast site. He said any zoning changes could not force existing businesses out of the area. But, he added, a master plan could act as a blueprint, encouraging more residential redevelopment, and transition from industrial to residential.
"If market forces dictated that change, then it could happen over time," said Powers.
Since the blast, some Danversport residents have become more critical of the zoning that allows such businesses as warehouses, shopping centers, chemical factories, and assembly plants just 25 feet from their homes.
"That explosion was a wake-up call," said Jack Fratus, 67, a lifelong resident of Danversport.
Fratus, along with Sandy Lane, helped create the Danversport Neighborhood Action Committee after the blast. The group has helped raise $7,000 for displaced residents, but also plans to push city officials to allow more residential redevelopment along the waterfront. "I think the Port [Danversport] is very fed up with this whole situation." Lane said. "Most of us knew that sooner of later something would happen down there."
? Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
