By Bobby Grady | Staff Writer

Gloucester Daily Times, October 1, 2026

The Gloucester City Council and Planning Board both unanimously approved adopting the Housing Compass Plan, a five-year outlook containing recommendations from the city’s Community Development Department and the plan’s volunteer advisory committee, on ways to address the city’s various housing needs.

Councilors and the Planning Board met jointly Tuesday for a public hearing on the plan during which Community Development Director Alex Koppelman highlighted the plan’s high points.

In general, the plan outlines ways to protect residents from rising housing costs, preserve the city’s current housing and look at where new housing could go. The plan includes a breakdown of Gloucester’s housing stock.

But, adoption of the plan does not mean all of its recommendations will be enacted as it needs to be sent to the state for final approval. Then city officials, with public input, can choose what parts of the plan to implement.

“It is a roadmap for the city to look at and decide what to implement … and would involve a public process with the community,” Koppelman said.

Creating the plan has taken about a year, according to Koppelman, and has included a wide variety of community engagement, an assessment of the city’s housing needs using current demographic data and looking at development constraints and opportunities, and thinking about where it makes sense to encourage additional housing.

“Based on all this we formed goals for the plan and then there are several policy recommendations,” Koppelman said.

Goals for the plan call for:

— Supporting housing for the city’s aging population.

— Building local capacity.

— Encouraging a greater variety of housing — especially smaller types of housing — and affordability, which Koppelman said is a major focus area.

“That’s because housing is very expensive. The median for sale price of a single family home in Gloucester is $715,000 so you need considerable resources to put a down payment on that as well as a good income,” he said. “And when 56% of the housing stock is single-family (homes), that means a lot of it is pretty hard to access.”

To achieve the goals under the plan’s three principles — protect, preserve and produce — a number of recommendations are outlined.

Under the protect principle, recommendations include seeking federal assistance to aid first-time home buyers, policies to protect renters and ways to improve the city’s cultural activities.

To preserve, Koppelman said recommendations include ways to prevent rent spikes, monitor short-term rentals and incentivize landlords to rent to year-round residents, and ways to increase housing “at a level of affordability accessible to Gloucester households.”

Housing production recommendations call for utilizing a variety of zoning to boost housing, working with the owner of the defunct Shaw’s on Railroad Avenue to get a grocery store and apartments in that space, helping people finance housing, and advocating with the state for more grants.

Zoning changes Koppelman highlighted include creating a starter home district to encourage the construction of starter homes, which would come with state incentives, and a “smart growth overlay district,” a state zoning template that municipalities can cater to their needs.

“You can set dimensional and design standards to ensure that the zoning is going to result in housing that’s appropriate for where it’s being considered,” he said. “The state also provides really great incentives for that.”

“For example, if a project allowed up to 20 units, the state would provide the city $10,000 to the city’s general fund but once building permits are issued, the city would receive an additional $3,000 per unit,” he continued. “If any school-age children move into the housing that is built, the state provides tuition reimbursement.”

Koppelman also highlighted possible housing sites that are privately owned, but with whom the city could collaborate. Those sites include:

— 272 Washington St., site of the defunct Gloucester Healthcare.

— 7 Railroad Ave., former site of Shaw’s.

— 100 Gloucester Crossing Road,

— 33 Emerson Ave.

— 58/58R Prospect St., part of the Saint Ann’s campus.

Housing production recommendations also include finding ways to help residents finance accessory dwelling units — essentially an in-law suite — through the Affordable Housing Trust.

After the presentation, Councilor Jason Grow asked Koppelman what the city should start doing so the plan does not sit “on a shelf somewhere to gather dust.”

Koppelman said work to implement some recommendations has already begun. The Affordable Housing Trust is working on a possible lease-to-locals program among other ideas and the Planning Board’s Housing Subcommittee has been looking at many of the aforementioned zoning recommendations.

“I think that is the best impact what we could make coming out of this plan, to consider where to have those, because not only would they facilitate housing the city needs, but they can bring great financial benefits,” Koppelman said.

Those in attendance were generally supportive of the plan, saying affordable housing production is a must for the city.

“It gives us a framework for moving forward and a path for addressing the housing crisis that we are currently facing,” Action Inc. CEO Peggy Hegarty-Steck said.

Staff Writer Bobby Grady may be contacted at 978-675-2714 or bgrady@gloucestertimes.com.