What: A proposal for 15 townhouse units in two buildings (seven and eight units) on an existing parking lot on Merrimack Street, with garages facing the interior of the site and a driveway to Cambridge Street.
Where it stands: Preliminary hearing on November 9, 2026, with no vote. The design team is to return with renderings in context and revised details.
The design team presented about 34 and a half feet tall buildings with cementitious clapboard and shake siding, muted gray and tan colors, and decorative dormers.
Members welcomed new townhouse housing and garages facing the interior, but asked that the Merrimack Street ground floor look like a front with doors or stairs and better window proportions, that shake siding as a base be reconsidered, that the front gables be reconsidered because they are not typical of the street, and that the gap between buildings be minimized.
Members asked for a rendering showing the project in context with its neighbors, and suggested looking into how to acknowledge a historic alley beside the site.
Details come from auto-generated captions and may be misheard.