2025 Mayoral Candidates Answer GCACC Government Affairs Council Questions
Click the questions below to see the responses from each candidate. Responses from each candidate are available for download at the bottom of this page.
Mayor Greg Verga
Tourism is the fastest-growing portion of the city’s economy and downtown is a crucial part of that. Vacant buildings are the death of a downtown and we’ve had some success combatting that. I successfully petitioned the city council to approve a TIF tax incentive for the company that renovated what is now The Cut venue on Main Street, which is thriving. The former Santander building has a new owner, so we’re moving in the right direction and that needs to continue.
Something else I’m looking forward to is leaning into doing everything we can to support the expansion of rooftops above retail downtown. In other words, residential space above the storefronts at the sidewalk level. To have a vibrant downtown, you need people downtown. People who live downtown and work downtown and patronize the businesses downtown.
Improved access to parking downtown is a major action-item for us in our next term. It remains a challenge for our businesses and our residents and I’ve heard loud and clear those appeals to do what we can to improve it. That’s a top priority for the Verga administration moving forward.
Mayoral Candidate Paul Lundberg
Downtown today – and our merchants who make up this business center – is an incredible asset with a good deal of potential. But it needs a development plan that takes advantage of the combination of the entrepreneurial spirit of our business owners with the physical assets of an historically rich building component adjacent to a harbor. This combination is very unique in our area.
What Gloucester’s downtown needs is already partially present. We have the plans that begin to address this unique asset – the Downtown Streetscape and Building Facade Improvement Plan, the Reimaging Railroad Avenue plan – and these plans can be the basis of the City’s foundation of development to make the area a destination that goes beyond the current seasonal aspect of our merchant economy. The connection between our downtown retail space and the harbor can be developed to enhance the retail ambiance of the area from the West End to Flanagan Square. We can also incorporate some of the aspects of the Business Improvement District contemplated by State law.
The actionable items are 1) the City takes a leadership planning role for the infrastructure improvements (including beatification and parking) in partnership with the Chamber and the Downtown merchants with a target of the Fall of 2026 for a preliminary report; 2) raise our standard of cleanliness for the streets and sidewalks beginning Spring of 2026; and 3) complete the partnership that includes the marketing efforts of Discover Gloucester, and the goals of our cultural institutions such as the Sawyer Free Library, Cape Ann Museum and Maritime Gloucester.
Mayoral Candidate Jeff Worthley
Downtown Gloucester has always been and should always be the lifeblood of our community. However, despite some tremendous businesses, Downtown Gloucester is on life support.
I have many, proven ideas to promote small businesses but three actionable items that I would implement immediately would be:
A. Creating a more welcoming environment: Putting lights back into the trees will create a better ambiance and improve customer feelings of safety; striping the parking lines so that limited customer parking is maximized, increase police presence (preferably via foot patrol), reconstituting an employee parking pass and creating a park and ride option for employees who don’t need access to their cars.
B. Reconstitute the Downtown Development Commission (DDC). I’ve served on the DDC for many years and we were the conduit to the City administration and the City Council to advocate for meaningful improvements.
C. Bring on a proven Economic Development Director- The City of Gloucester’s Economic Development needs have been aboard a rudderless ship for nearly two years since the Mayor wrongfully terminated our effective Economic Development Director. Within one month of being inaugurated I will have this position filled with a very impressive and highly capable individual who is currently having great success in another community.
D. I have to add an important 4th item: A Downtown Parking Garage: it won’t be built right away but I would implement a downtown Parking Garage Task Force. I proposed this when I first got on the City Council 3 ½ years ago and the Mayor told me he would not allow any staff to serve on it and the Council President (at the time) refused to put the creation of this task force on the Council agenda.
Mayoral Candidate Paul Lundberg
Waterfront -The DPA (State) and the Marine Industrial zone (City) govern the use of the waterfront in Gloucester Harbor. The Industries that these districts are designed to protect still exist, but their needs have evolved in major ways over the past 50 years. The State and the City need to continue these protections to our fishing industry, lobster industry and seafood processing industries. And we can also look to the examples of the emerging ocean scientific economies (GMGI, Ocean Alliance and others), and industrial economies (off shore wind electrical generation).
In addition to these uses – that require ocean access – we also need to develop as much public access to the waterfront as is possible, given the fact the city owns very little waterfront property. A perfect example is I4C2 which has great potential as public open space. We need to continue the regulation of recreational boat use, for which there are other options beyond Gloucester’s Inner Harbor.
Mayoral Candidate Jeff Worthley
Modifying the DPA Boundary is a State decision. The City of Gloucester gave control to the Office of Coastal Zone Management and The Department of Environmental Protection in 1978 and that authority expanded to include all of the filled tidelands in 1984. It’s not up to us. That said, in 2014 the State removed much of the East Gloucester side of the Harbor from the Designated Port Area after the City lobbied and proved that much of that area wasn’t compliant with the DPA and the City intended to change the local zoning to match that change. It still hasn’t. I would propose allowing for a zoning designation of Neighborhood Business along East Main Street. Though most of the lots do not have access to the water, they are required to have a Marine Industrial Use.
The locations where fishermen are docked now should remain. The rest of the harbor that is currently designated for port activity should invite new, viable business ideas, like Biotechnology, Transportation, restaurants, and retail.
Mayor Greg Verga
I’ve been consistent about this since I got into the race to become mayor in 2021. Fishing will always be the heart and soul of our identity and it’s not dead, it’s just different. Gloucester has long been a leader in adaptation, improvisation and innovation. To fully leverage our fishing and maritime heritage, we have to continue to innovate, embrace this city’s potential as a biotech hub and be open to implementing new approaches. Research and education are a huge piece of that new approach. We need to support and recruit the many career development opportunities that exist in sustainable ocean resource management, with jobs from marine biology and engineering to policy analysis and entrepreneurship.
We submitted Gloucester’s first new Municipal Harbor Plan (MHP) and Designated Port Area (DPA) Master Plan since 2014 to the state for approval in March. It establishes community goals, standards and policies to guide public and private land use along harbors. I’m pleased to say it has now received state approval.
Putting plans into action—that is, delivering on implementation—has been a hallmark of my tenure as mayor. At its core, this new harbor plan will support the existing economic base and expand economic development opportunities, including both water-dependent and supporting uses of marine properties. The economic strategy will take into account the city’s overall economic position, climate resiliency and waterfront infrastructure in order to most effectively position the economic revitalization of its maritime assets.
I encourage folks to visit the website (https://harborplan.gloucester-ma.gov/) and click on the Harbor Plan tab for details.
Mayoral Candidate Jeff Worthly
I served on the Board of Directors for the North of Boston Convention & Visitor’s Bureau for 6 years, 3 years on their Executive Committee. I’m very familiar with how this organization supports tourism through the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism. For 4 of those years I represented the communities of Cape Ann and 2 of those years I represented the City of Salem as well. Salem’s October tourism marketing has increased the demand for hotel stays in Gloucester. We could definitely better position ourselves to capture that business. That said, we can also start our own marketing efforts to encourage visitors in the shoulder and off seasons.
I will see to it that ground is broken on a downtown parking garage within two years of taking office. I will work with CATA to improve bus routes. I will work towards having a spotlessly clean, handicap accessible public restroom in downtown Gloucester. And Gloucester will be litter free.
Mayor Greg Verga
If I convey nothing else in this answer, I want to make sure to reiterate that tourism is not only the fastest-growing sector of our economy, but also that all of us know someone—friends, relatives, neighbors—who make their living from the tourism economy. It’s critical that we as a community support it. Someone in your life relies on income earned during those three peak months.
The city needs to support thoughtful efforts to diversify the experience downtown. In other words, we need to help curate a good mix of restaurants, entertainment and business.
A parking and transportation assessment that we commissioned is complete and we’ve begun reviewing recommendations to see what’s feasible, such as: tiered parking rates to encourage turnover in prime spots and improved traffic flow routes to create additional spots. We’ve also kicked off the implementation of a wayfinding signage system to deliver more coherent traffic and pedestrian flow on Main Street, Middle Street and Rogers Street.
Congestion and parking have been major challenges for years. We’ve had significant success streamlining parking for visitors and residents, alike. Residents need to see more future improvements.
The visitor experience has been transformed with the beach parking reservation system (app or web) introduced by my administration and, after years of experiencing severe traffic and illegal parking that blocked driveways during peak season, our residents’ concerns about congestion have been alleviated by access management and, in part, by increased fees for non-residents.
Applying for a resident beach sticker is now highly efficient and digitized for folks’ convenience. One resident reported receiving their confirmation just minutes after applying, and the sticker was mailed the same day. The city lost a ton of money on failed parking kiosks before I took office. We’ve updated those and digitized them with app access and we’re continuing to troubleshoot sporadic issues. We’re also considering options for making the kiosks more user-friendly in terms of visibility and clarity.
Mayoral Candidate Paul Lundberg
Tourism is a vital and growing part of our economy. The City should make every effort to broaden the limited seasonality of our attractions. A great example of how we do this is the mission of Maritime Gloucester. MG has a distinctly ocean access characteristic which is seasonal. But they are developing their public offerings to become more educational, which has less seasonality about them. This approach is also compatible with the ideas described in Answer #1 which broaden the economic opportunities of our downtown merchants by expanding their seasons.
Immediate projects that can be supported by the City are 1) a plan to make cohesive investments in public amenities – restrooms, pathways, signage – that are properly developed and properly maintained; 2) partnership and promotion of the arts and cultural events and organizations that take place during the Fall, Winter and Spring seasons; and 3) continue encouragement and marketing partnership with emerging four season attractions based on our rich heritage, and eco-tourism. All of this can be done with the infrastructure improvements necessary to ensure we are not increasing burdens on our permanent residents.
Mayor Greg Verga
Helping people find a place to live and work in a city that has become unaffordable is essentially part of the work we do every day in my administration. We’ve had success disbursing funds from our First Time Home Buyer Down Payment Assistance Program as well as our Community Development Block Grant program, which offers deferred loans to low and moderate income buyers purchasing their first home in Gloucester.
Another piece of the puzzle was passing the multifamily zoning ordinance to bring Gloucester in compliance with state Section 3A MBTA community guidelines for multifamily housing near public transit. The goal of that is to create entry-level housing. We just got this new zoning. Let’s see how it works and what it produces. That takes time.
I also remain focused on retaining the housing we have and improving the housing we have. That’s pivotal, and a piece of that is the rooftops over retail that I mentioned. We know we’re not going to build our way out of our housing crisis. Supply and demand are huge factors. There’s not an overabundance of buildable space here, and we’re going to be respectful of our city’s character and historic aesthetic.
Gloucester spans about 40 square miles; 20 are coastline and another sizable percentage consists of wetlands or granite. We’re also de facto stewards to hundreds of acres of conservation land. Preserving all that means that the projects coming before the planning board and the associated permitting are more complex than we’ve seen in decades. They’re difficult to get greenlit and they should be. Appropriately, the planning board takes the time that’s required to review them.
If a project makes sense for the city, makes sense for the planning board and is thoughtful about the fabric of the street and neighborhood in question, the democratic process suggests we should at least have that conversation.
Mayoral Candidate Paul Lundberg
Workforce housing to accommodate the above described expansions needs to be addressed, along with the entire issue of doing what we can to expand the availability of housing for our permanent citizens. We are not meeting the housing needs of our city employees, educators, seniors and families with school age children. We have the tools to start making inroads into the expansion of housing supply for all of these groups.
We have several zoning proposals from our Housing Production Task Force that could be immediately effective and can be brought back before the public for immediate consideration. As an advocate of the goal of preserving our neighbor and community character, I would promote these solutions in a way that expands housing opportunities throughout the City. In addition to this zoning reform, I would simplify the permitting process for existing homeowners and small developers, look for rezoning opportunities for mixed commercial and residential use, and continue our search for state and federal funding opportunities.
We should always keep in mind that improved housing accessibility is also a key component in economic development.
Mayoral Candidate Jeff Worthley
Specific steps I would encourage would be the creation of Tiny Homes, in some areas of the City, where appropriate, reduce the lot sizes of buildable lots, and I would reconsider my proposal to allow housing above buildings in the Industrial Parks.
