Two Workforce Housing Projects Almost A Go

It took nearly four hours of Planning Board deliberations, but two workforce housing projects that have been on the sidelines for over a year are almost ready to be built.

The Deacon Place development off of Mammoth Road received conditional approval from the board on April 18 while Cricket Ridge off of Meetinghouse Road was pushed to one final meeting in May.

Sun Coast Properties LLC, the developers of Deacon Place, were granted a builder's remedy by Rockingham County Superior Court on Feb. 29.

The decision by the court allowed Sun Coast to go back before the Planning Board, with the requirement that Deacon Place have five workforce housing units of the 10 that will be in the development.

John Cronin, Manchester attorney for the development, said that a lot of the opposition to the project was not based on the location, as it directly abuts a large condominium development.

"Although the zoning district is rural, I think that we can all agree that Mammoth Road is a pretty busy road," he said.

Conditions of the board's accepting of the application included that the workforce units be scattered and not clustered into one area, and that a N.H. Department of Transportation driveway permit is obtained.

The board also asked that the location of the fire hydrant is placed on the final plans, which will be determined by the Windham Fire Department and coordinated with Pennichuck Corporation, a water utility company.

The complex will have 25 parking spots for the 10 units.

The board also asked that Sun Coast work with staff and town council to find a suitable monitoring agency to make sure the units remain workforce housing for the 30 required years.

Cricket Ridge, which was represented by civil engineer Karl Dubay, had a more complicated task to get its application heard again by the board.

As it was proposing that only 3 of its 12 units be workforce housing, which goes against the grain of the town's recently adopted ordinance, the board struggled with that specific item.

When the project was originally proposed in 2010, there was no town ordinance in place. The project was denied when it first came before the Planning Board as the applicant was told it needed a variance.

The variance obtained specifically covered for three workforce housing units and nine market-value homes.

"I think that it is what it is," said board member Jonathan Sycamore, who was among the majority of board members that said 25 percent workforce housing units was acceptable.

While presenting the application, Dubay said that the area was actually pre-designed for a town road in the early 70's.

He added that there are no wetlands impacts, and that tree buffers will be placed to block out the development from abutters.

One of those abutters, Jim Maloof, entirely disagreed with the project.

"I've been against this project because I feel that it's too many houses right through a rural zone," he said. 

Maloof, who lives at 82 Meetinghouse Road, has the smallest buffer between his property and the proposed development.

"I just felt that having a house 15 feet off your property line with a 10 feet buffer was totally inadequate," he said.

Maloof added that the new homes will negatively impact his property value.

Dubay defended that he will work with the abutters to try to reach a reasonable conclusion.

Another abutter, Dana Call, said that she was worried about construction noise being drawn out for months.

"I'm going to be living in a construction zone literally 50 feet outside my bedroom window for the foreseeable future," she said.

No specific timeframe was given as to how long the project will take once it is approved.

Although it has already been done, the board called for another site walk to be done on April 28 since four of the members didn't take part in the first walk.

Dubay also said that as an administrative item, his group would be happy to put the paperwork together for a conditional use permit to alleviate concerns about only having three workforce housing units.

Like Deacon Place, he was not able to determine where the workforce housing units will be, but promised that they would also be scattered.