The owners of a three-family Marginal Street home hit by fire last December are seeking to rebuild and add an additional unit.
In December, wind caused a 6,000 volt primary wire to touch the house, setting off the fire.
At Tuesday night’s Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, the board heard from owners Pablo and Anna Castillo about their plans to rebuild, which include straightening the roof on the top floor and creating an additional apartment unit in the building.
“The Castillos have owned it for many years, unfortunately, in December of last year the building burned,” said attorney David Mindlin. “Luckily, it wasn’t totally destroyed, but it is uninhabitable at this point. The building is a non-conforming three-family in the Waterfront Upland district, a district that is intended to promote waterfront activity and the residential neighborhood.”
Mindlin said the Castillos currently occupy the second and third floors as a duplex apartment, which is more space than they need, so they would like to split the two floors off and create a fourth unit.
The footprint of the building would remain the same, but the dormered top floor would be expanded by creating a flat roof, according to the attorney.
“There won’t be any change to the height of this, but the profile of the building will change slightly,” said Mindlin.
The project will next go before the Planning Board on August 22 for that board’s recommendation before coming back to the ZBA for potential final approvals in September.
In other business, the ZBA approved a request by Juan Gallego at 156 Shawmut Ave. to increase the occupancy of a three-unit building to four units.
The board also approved a request to add an additional unit at 62 Washington Ave., replacing a current commercial space on the ground floor with a rental unit and increasing the building from seven to eight units. Additionally, the ZBA approved a small addition for a three-unit building at 120 Bloomingdale St. to assist with past flooding issues at the building.
A request for special permits and variances for the demolition of a three-unit building at 275 Washington Ave. to be replaced by a six-unit building was moved until the ZBA’s Sept. 13 meeting.
The ZBA also moved a request for the construction of a light manufacturing and wholesale building at 295 Eastern Ave. to its September meeting.