By Ethan Forman
DANVERS — The Zoning Board of Appeals approved a move Monday that paves the way for the landmark, 1853 Victorian mansion and stone barn at the New England Homes for the Deaf to become condominiums, said developer Gordon Thomson of the Danvers-based Thomson Companies.
"It's a big, big step in the right direction," Thomson said. The unanimous approval will allow applicants to change the riverfront building's use from a meeting hall to multifamily building as Thomson seeks to renovate the hilltop mansion and barn into 16 two-bedroom luxury condos.
Many of the building's windows have been boarded up since the Nov. 22, 2006, ink and paint plant blast.
Originally, Thomson wanted to build senior condominiums after the nonprofit agreed to sell his company two acres and the 1853 brick mansion and stone barn. Thomson also has plans to acquire another eight acres at the back for single-family homes.
However, the condo plan hinged on getting a use variance, Danvers attorney Nancy McCann said.
Faced with that, in July, Thomson withdrew his application and dropped the senior housing.
Zoning restricts what can be built at the hilltop estate at 152 Water St. to single-family homes. However, the Homes for the Deaf is exempt from such zoning.
The organization, which has been serving the deaf and deaf-blind in Danvers since 1925, had already moved its residents out of the mansion in 2004 to a 60-unit assisted-living/skilled nursing facility, while also operating the 20-unit Thompson House nearby.
To get the condo project approved, the organization asked the town's building inspector to find whether the mansion had been used as something more than a home for the deaf over the years.
Turns out the mansion had been used as an office while hosting events for the deaf and deaf-blind community from all over the Northeast, McCann said. It would still be doing so were it not for the Danversport explosion.
Developers asked the zoning board to substitute the "nonconforming" meeting facility and social hall use for the multifamily one, on the theory "the residential use we are proposing is less detrimental," McCann said.
John Thomson, Gordon Thomson's son, said the proposal will go to the Planning Board and Conservation Commission.
