Condos Coming to School Street

The Zoning Board of Adjustment granted parking variances to a local developer who plans on turning a burned out building on School Street into three new empty nester condos.

The vote of the ZBA was unanimous on Dec. 4, for six variances, which will allow the construction of two two-car garages on the eastern side of the property, as well as single spaces near the new garages and one on the western side of the property, with minimum setbacks.

John Macintosh, the owner of the historic property since the early 1990s, said the house, which included three units, was "wrecked" in an April fire. After the fire, he started looking for a new place to live and found there were few alternative housing options or empty nester units. Macintosh decided that the best use of the property would be to find a developer to convert it into three condo units.

Enter Jonathan Chorlian, who has done a number of West End condo conversions as well as built new buildings with Steve Duprey downtown.

Chorlian said most of the conversions he had done required a complete “gut rehab” and this would too, along with rehabilitation of the brick sections that would “greatly improve” on what was there. But one of the problems with these kinds of projects, he said, was the parking requirement. There are only two on the property that sometimes fit four cars. Zoning requires six, he said.

At the same time, Chorlian is trying to preserve as much green space on the eastern side of the property as possible, which is a bit bigger than most lots in the neighborhood.

Chorlian designed the project with a single four-car garage on the Rumford Street side but after talking with neighbors and the city’s engineering department, he redesigned the plan to have the two separate garages.

The variances, he said, would allow the space to conform to the current zoning.

“It’s a very handsome project that will improve the quality of the neighborhood,” Chorlian said.

After some questions from ZBA members about the green space, entering and exiting from the single space on School Street, and whether the site had three units grandfathered, Stephen Norton asked why the project couldn’t be two units instead of three, which would allow it to go forward without some of the variances.

Chorlian said “economics” was an issue adding that there was “a real undesirability to two units,” noting that Macintosh would be in one of the units and he had buyers for two other units.

“There are two votes,” he said about a condo association with two units. “When there are three people, it’s a lot easier to avoid (difficult voting situations).”

Two neighbors, one a direct abutter, approved of the variances and the project, noting that both the green space preservation and the historic character of the building were important.

After some discussion about the sixth parking space entering and exiting onto School Street and the density of the neighborhood, the board approved the variances.