The Marblehead Housing Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the Select Board prioritize housing development at the former Coffin School site, formalizing months of discussion about the future of the town-owned Turner Road property. The decision comes as Marblehead faces pressure to expand housing options amid rising costs and while the town works to regain compliance with the MBTA Communities Act.
Committee members approved a draft letter outlining their recommendation during the meeting.
A motion was then made to accept the draft letter and submit it to the Select Board, which passed unanimously.
The Coffin School site has been under consideration since the fall, when town officials received multiple ideas for its reuse, including affordable housing, cemetery expansion, and other municipal purposes. No request for proposals has been issued, and final authority over the property rests with the Select Board.
During the meeting, Housing Committee Chair Brendan Callahan also addressed the town’s broader housing obligations, including Marblehead’s effort to comply with the MBTA Communities Act after voters repealed an earlier zoning bylaw last year. The town must now adopt new multifamily zoning to regain eligibility for certain state grants.
Callahan said the Town recently received feedback from state housing officials on its revised zoning proposal.
“We did receive a letter as of Jan. 8. It is, overall, mostly, you know, a positive letter for the town,” he said. “We don’t feel that any of the comments were, you know, a deal breaker.”
He emphasized that the Housing Committee is not steering the MBTA zoning process.
“The Select Board and the Planning Board are kind of the co-leads on this project. We, as the Housing Committee is not the lead,” Callahan said.
Public comment focused heavily on communication issues, with several residents living near the Coffin School saying they were unaware the committee would be discussing the site at its January meeting.
“I don’t quite understand why I’m not getting emails,” Steve Elliot said. “I get them for the Police Department, the Council on Aging, but I never get one.”
Claudette Mason, a direct abutter, said she had made similar requests
“I also have asked several times to receive emails… and we have not been receiving them either,” she said.
Callahan responded that residents must subscribe specifically to Housing Committee alerts and said the Coffin School had been discussed regularly in prior months.
“This has been a recurring agenda item since September,” he said.
Some residents warned that endorsing housing as the preferred use could leave the neighborhood vulnerable to future proposals that exceed what the committee has described.
“My concern is that you have one thing that’s being pushed that none of us know what damn thing about,” Michael Bliss said. “You don’t have a backup plan.”
Committee member Senior Deacon John Whipple said the letter to the Select Board intentionally sets limits.
“We specifically say that we would recommend two to three stories,” he said, adding that anything larger would not reflect the committee’s position.
Callahan reiterated that no development process has begun and that the committee’s action is advisory.
“We have not even begun the draft on an RFP. We haven’t started anything,” he said.
Sharon Doliber, outreach coordinator at the Council on Aging, described the growing housing crisis among older residents in town.
“I have right now, five homeless seniors in Marblehead on my caseload,” she said. “One is living in his van… one’s living in his jeep.”
The meeting also touched on the site’s past. Former Coffin School student Linda Belanger urged town officials to recover a time capsule buried on the property decades ago before any redevelopment proceeds.
“I want to make sure that the time capsule by the flagpole gets taken out before the 400th anniversary,” she said, asking that it be removed “before you take any action on that property.”
The Housing Committee’s recommendation now moves to the Select Board, which has not yet deliberated on the Coffin School’s future and has said additional public engagement will occur before any formal action is taken.
