Beauport Gloucester LLC has delayed its proposal to change the zoning of several properties in the Fort neighborhood.
For the moment, anyway.
Beauport, headed by New Balance founder and Bay View resident Jim Davis, owns the former Birdseye property and is planning to build a hotel on the site.
Earlier this month, the company put forward a plan that would alter the zoning of several parcels on Commercial Street, including for the so-called Chamber of Commerce building at 33 Commercial St.
But last week, it pulled the plan back for revision.
Cruiseport Gloucester proprietor Sheree DeLorenzo, who's a partner in the project, said Monday that John Cunningham, the company's attorney for this project, would have the revised plans in as soon as today,
DeLorenzo said the company took the proposal back to fix a few technical glitches at the direction of City Clerk Linda Lowe's office. The changes, DeLorenzo said, don't alter the size or scope of the zoning proposal, which includes 22, 33 and 45 Commercial St.
Beauport Gloucester filed its first proposal in early January. The company recalled that proposal for tweaking a few days after filing it and put forward a revised plan for the Jan. 24 Ciyt Council meeting.
The company then asked the council to defer reviewing the plans until its next meeting in February.
The company is asking for a hotel overlay district that allows for a hotel in the Fort's Marine Industrial zoning.
Gregg Cadematori, the city's planning director, said the overlay district tacks the hotel requirements on top of the marine industrial zoning. This zoning add-on, according to a proposal submitted for the Jan. 24 council meeting, covers the Outer Harbor-side of Commercial Street, roughly from Beach Court to Fort Square.
Davis' company isn't the first one to try re-zoning the area. The last effort, headed by local developer Mac Bell, faced neighborhood opposition in 2010. Davis bought the Birdseye property from Bell for $6.5 million in July. Bell bought the property in 2009 for $2.25 million.
Beauport Gloucester's proposal includes the Birdseye building, a multi-family house on Beach Court, and the Chamber of Commerce building. The company, DeLorenzo said, has no plans for the chamber building.
"It's just part of the overlay district," she said.
When the plan comes back to the city, it enters a fairly tight process, said Lowe, the city clerk.
City Council will vote to send the project to both the Planning Board and the council's Planning and Development subcommittee, headed by former mayor and Councilor-at-Large Bruce Tobey. Councilors may also have the Planning Board take a cursory, informal, look at the proposal before taking any action on it.
Once the planning committees have the proposal, they will hold public hearings no earlier than 65 days after receiving it — a target date at this point of mid to late April.
The Planning Board will then pull together a report on the plan, and shoot that back to the council. Then the council holds another hearing, and comes forward for final vote.
Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.
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