Winthrop Board Continues Shirley Street Lodging Case, Clears Somerset Ave. Redesign

Other Committee · Meeting of June 25, 2026

Winthrop Board of Appeals continues contested lodging-house conversion, unanimously approves Somerset Avenue redesign. The board voted 5-0 to continue Case 4 of 2026 for 312 Shirley Street, a request by Winthrop Hospitality LLC and owner Paul Ruff of Heath Properties to convert a 30-unit licensed lodging house to permanent apartments, to its August 20 meeting, directing the applicant to return with a use-variance application rather than the Section 6 special-permit claim originally filed. Chair Darren Barrett and other members concluded the shift from transient lodging to long-term tenancy constitutes a change in kind requiring variance relief, and demanded a dimensioned parking plan enumerating all required variances.

Resident Thomas Gillespie challenged the applicant's claimed 30 parking spaces, saying "there is no parking at all" based on his own photographs of Shirley Street. In the second case, the board unanimously approved a plan revision for the Fretra Family Trust at 50 Somerset Ave., reducing the previously approved project from 17 units to 12, eliminating mechanical stacking equipment in favor of 11 conventional parking spaces, and cutting the building from four stories to three, with the variance set to expire August 20, 2026.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of June 25, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.