NEWBURYPORT — The Newburyport Planning Board approved zoning changes on Feb. 18, 2026, that would allow redevelopment of the former Brown School property into affordable housing while preserving the historic building and nearby park space.
The proposed amendment to the Brown School Overlay District was discussed during a joint public hearing between the Planning Board and the City Council’s Planning and Development Committee.
Councilor Ben Harman, chair of the Planning and Development Committee, delivered a PowerPoint presentation on the proposed zoning amendment, which outlined the background of the project and the reasons the zoning changes were needed.
“The purposes of the district originally were a couple of things,” Harman explained during the presentation. “One was to facilitate adaptive reuse of the former Brown School building as affordable housing…and to protect and preserve the neighborhood park space.”
Harman displayed aerial images showing demolition work underway at the Brown School property, including the gymnasium section of the building, which he said cannot be reused as housing and is being removed as part of the city’s contribution to the redevelopment effort.
He added that the demolition work has been temporarily delayed due to additional conditions discovered during the project.
“We have been delayed a little bit because of some additional specs we found there,” Harman said. “But we have to do additional protocols to do that.”
The redevelopment proposal would preserve the historic schoolhouse while allowing a small addition to the rear of the building.
“You’ll also notice…there’s a small addition that’s now proposed here at the back,” Harman said. “This is a one-story addition, relatively small in size.”
Harman said the zoning amendment is necessary because the new addition was proposed after the zoning was put forward.
Harman said the zoning update also addresses “basic underlying dimensional requirements, which as codified right now, would essentially impede the project.” For instance, he said the Brown School Overlay District allows for 29 multifamily units, but the existing dimensional formula would require approximately 120,000 square feet of land — far more than the roughly 34,789-square-foot parcel. The amendment proposes reducing the minimum lot size to about 34,000 square feet to align with the actual property.
The amendment would also clarify that a small addition to the historic building is allowed, since the current language only references new or replacement structures.
Harman said demolition work on the unusable portions of the building is expected to continue through the spring. The developer is expected to seek approvals from the Historic Commission and the Planning Board in the coming months before construction can begin.
Following the presentation, the board opened the floor for public comment. No members of the public came forward to speak, and the hearing was closed.
The Planning Board then voted by show of hands to recommend the proposed zoning language as written.
