HAVERHILL — A greater variety of businesses will be allowed in the city's industrial parks.
After more than an hour of often-heated debate last night, the City Council approved a zoning change that Mayor James Fiorentini said will improve Haverhill's business community.
Others aren't so sure.
Sandy York manages properties in the Ward Hill Park. Last night, she said Fiorentini, who has advocated getting a wider assortment of companies into industrial parks, ignored many of the suggestions she and others in her park made.
"What we have to say doesn't matter," York told councilors. "The mayor is going to do what he wants."
William Pillsbury, the city's planning and economic development director, urged the council to pass the ordinance, which received a favorable recommendation earlier from the Planning Board. If there are problems with the ordinance the council ended up approving last night, it can be changed, he said.
"Good zoning keeps up with the times," said Pillsbury. "Zoning is a living, breathing document."
Pillsbury noted that with the zoning change, plumbing, electrical and landscaping contractors will be allowed to locate in the business parks at Ward Hill, upper Hilldale Avenue, Newark Street and Computer Drive.
It's better to have those kinds of firms in a business park rather than a residential neighborhood, he said. Businesses taking up less than 5,000 square feet should be downtown, rather than in a business park, he said.
While the newly designated business parks will be allowed to bring in companies that would not have been permitted when they were industrial parks, a number of entities, including recreational facilities, will have to obtain special permits.
York and others said getting a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals can be very costly.
"We need to be able to solicit businesses," she said to councilors. "Please do not vote in favor of this ordinance as it is."
Fiorentini did not attend last night's council meeting, but his chief of staff, Andrew Herlihy, said the mayor listened to the ideas coming from the task force he named to change the zoning for the parks. Herlihy said Fiorentini does not want to let "low-employment" companies into the parks.
Herlihy called the zoning change a "significant loosening of red tape."
Jim Piemonte of Scott Management, which oversees several properties in the Ward Hill park, said the new zoning does not do enough to make the park competitive with other parks in Woburn and New Hampshire. He said obtaining a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals can cost $5,000 to $10,000 because of the paperwork that's required.
"I have enjoyed the spirited discussion," Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O'Brien said last night.
She told Pillsbury, however, that she didn't like being "cowed" into voting for the change.
"I am totally disgusted," said Councilor David Hall.
"I don't think she's unreasonable," he said of York's comments. Given Haverhill's 9.5 percent unemployment rate, Hall said, "We've got to support this (Ward Hill) business park.
Businesses that want to locate in Ward Hill or another business park should not have to pay thousands of dollars for a permit, he said.
York said the Ward Hill Park now has 75 percent of its space occupied.
"It should be 100 percent," Hall said.
Before giving the new zoning final passage, the council adopted an amendment offered by Councilor William Macek to allow health care facilities in the parks by special permit. The zoning proposal did not include health care facilities, Pillsbury said, because of the difficulty in defining just what a health care facility is. He said the city's administration does not want doctors' offices in a business park.
Macek's amendment passed 7-2, with councilors William Ryan and Colin LePage opposed.
Councilor Sven Amirian said much of last night's acrimony could have been avoided with more "heart-to-heart discussion."
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