Select Board approves Essex Tech’s Larkin event-center entertainment license with restrictions after neighbors raise traffic and commercial-use concerns

The Select Board on Tuesday approved an entertainment license for the Larkin Event Center at Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School but attached multiple conditions after more than two hours of public comment and board questions about noise, traffic and commercial use of a publicly funded facility.

Heidi (representing the Larkin project) and manager Ryan Monks described the Larkin as a training and agricultural museum space tied to the school’s culinary and hospitality programs. They said the primary intent is educational: students will work in the facility under chef instructors during school hours and on some adult-program events. "The intention is that [revenue] would be reinvested into the school, primarily at the Larkin, where there would be ongoing maintenance, cost of utilities and services," Heidi said.

Neighbors and several Select Board members pressed for detail on how the facility will be used, who will staff events, how parking and traffic would be handled and whether private, revenue-generating events could place the school at an unfair advantage vis-à-vis commercial venues. Resident speakers said the neighborhood is residential and warned that frequent private events — especially summer evenings — would worsen existing traffic and noise. "This is a residential neighborhood," resident Kelly Deong Dahl said, asking that the board "slow down" and consider community uses such as charity luncheons before approving a license for recurring private events.

Board members…