Marblehead Zoning, Planning had productive year

BY ROBERT HRUSKA, MARBLEHEAD ZONING ADMINISTRATOR

Happy New Year everybody!  I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

In 2018 we have had nine new house permits, which is exactly the same as last year. We also gave permits for 13 house additions which is a few down from last year.

Accessory permits (accessories are any structure not attached to your house) were seven.  This included two decks, three fences and a couple garages.

In addition to being the Zoning Administrator, I also serve as the Secretary for the Planning Commission. The Planning commission consists of three citizen members and two members from the Village Administration. The members representing the Village Administration are Mayor Jackie Bird and Councilman David Redett, who is also the vice-chair. The citizen members are Terry Glovinsky, Corky Zembala and Chairman Tim Feller.

The Planning Secretary is yours truly. We had a busy year at Planning with 14 Public Hearings for things like variances and lot splits. The Planning Commission changed the way we calculate setbacks this year. Instead of a fixed number, the setback is now the average of the existing neighboring houses.

In most instances, this eliminates the time and cost of a public hearing for the applicant, for what would have been a variance hearing.

If you need zoning information, you can call, email or stop in to the Village of Marblehead office, located above the Marblehead Police Station, and ask me questions. The Zoning and Planning Office is open every weekday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.  We now have a new and separate phone number for the Zoning Office, which is 419-798-0517. The email address is the same marbleheadzoning@cros.net. The village office phone for Rhonda and Olga in the Fiscal Department is still the same 419-798-4074.

P.S. When I got into the office this morning, I found a special thank you note from Santa to the Village.  Santa said he didn’t have to make the regular fly-over this year. He did it old school this time. Rudolph nosed him right down the very smooth Alexander Pike into downtown!