Committee reviews 2016 sale of 141–143 Hancock Street, recommends disposition and requests five-year track record

The Lawrence City Housing and Economic Development Committee on July 13 voted to recommend a direct disposition of 143 Hancock Street to the Lawrence Family Development Education Fund and asked the nonprofit to provide five years of development and sales records for the full City Council to review.

Councilor Mark LaPlante moved to send document 6009 (disposition of 143 Hancock Street) to the full council with a favorable recommendation; the motion was seconded and carried by voice vote. Planning staff said the two parcels being considered for merger (141 and 143 Hancock) would be sold for $6,000 per lot, or $12,000 total, and that the merged lot should meet the city’s approximate 5,000-square-foot minimum for a single-family dwelling after surveying and merging.

April Laskowski, identified as the alternative youth development program director for Lawrence Family Development Education Fund, told the committee the organization plans to build an energy-efficient single-family home using YouthBuild participants. “We’re planning on building a single family home, which is gonna be energy efficient,” Laskowski said, adding that construction would likely begin after zoning and surveying are complete and estimated the timeline at about a year.

Councilors pressed for details on zoning, tax status and the nonprofit’s track record. Planning staff said the lots are not on the tax rolls and are in tax title; the disposition would include a process for closing and title examination prior to construction. Councilor Mark LaPlante asked the nonprofit to provide up to five years of information on the outcome of previous dispositions; Laskowski said she has been director for about five years and could supply those records.

The discussion also revisited a prior 2016 sale of nearby parcels that councilors said carried expectations — discussed publicly at the time — that the nonprofit’s YouthBuild program would construct housing and deliver training to young participants. Councilors said they were unable to find deeded conditions in the registry of deeds that would have required those outcomes and described that absence as “troublesome.”

A longtime representative of the nonprofit, Dean, responded that the organization had faced financial and organizational challenges after separating from a school partnership and that attorneys had advised the sale was clear at the time. “We did our due diligence,” Dean said, and acknowledged the nonprofit sold property during a period of financial strain. He said the organization has since diversified program offerings, expanded certificate programs and graduated young adults into jobs and training, and pledged that future projects would include YouthBuild components and sales structured for first-time homebuyers at a discounted rate.

After discussing the historical record and legal questions about deed conditions, Councilor Giovanni Rodriguez moved that the committee send formal correspondence to the nonprofit board requesting an explanatory letter and relevant documentation (including the 2016 video) and then table further action at the committee level. The motion passed by voice vote. Committee members asked that any materials the nonprofit submits accompany any packet if the item moves to full council.

The committee also approved document 311-15 concerning 141 Hancock Street with the five‑year track-record request attached and signaled it will seek additional documentation and legal guidance on whether recorded deed restrictions existed in prior sales.

The committee’s action does not immediately change property ownership; it forwards a recommendation to the full City Council and requests supplementary records and an explanatory letter from the Lawrence Family Development Education Fund.