The Keene Sentinel Sunday September 16, 2007
by Sarah Palermo
Sentinel Staff
Winchester - Though the Boston and Maine Railroad tracks by Franklin Mountain have been silent for some time, the property next door has been generating noise in recent months.
Rindge developer Robert Vandyke has plans for what could be Winchester's first planned residential development, on the property and will appear before the planning board Monday night for a continuation of a public hearing.
The project, off of Route 10 just south of Westport Village Road, could create 32 new condominium units and a community center run by a homeowners association.
Plans show the units clustered together on roughly 17 acres of the property. The remaining land, about 27 acres, would be protected in a conservation easment.
Vandykes proposal has met with opposition at previous public hearings and some concerned residents have been trying to gather more support for Monday.
Cope T Homan and Michael Towne own properties adjacent to the proposed development and have been involved with circulating petitions and fliers around town, hoping to limit the size of the development.
I'm really not the type of guy that says, "Don't develope any of your land; but I do not believe with the buffers and wells and all, that there is enough buildable land for all this," Homan said.
Vandyke could not be reached for comment.
THe developer recently faced lawsuits from a group including residents of Jaffrey, the towns of Dublin and Marlborough and the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests, for a development proposed near Mount Monadnock.
Magaret A. Sharra, Winchester planning board chairperson, said the board was "not pleased" with delays in a five lot subdivision project Vandyke started on Route 119. The lots have been vacant, after most trees and brush were removed, for several months.
"We didn't know at that time the things we could require in terms of vegetation to be left in place, or time limits on when it would have to be done," she said.
More accustomed to working with smaller subdivisions, the planning board has hired a consultant from Stevens and Associates Engineering in Brattleboro, at Vandykes expense, according to Sharra, to help members understand various surveys and studies of the property.
Shara said the planning board has given the proposal serious consideration.
"This isn't a two-lot subdivision and the board has been very careful, taking it slowly, " she said.
"We're going to put in every reasonable protection for the town known to man."
> The Winchester Planning Board meets Monday at 7 p.m. at the Winchester Town Hall on Richmond Road.
Sarah Palermo can be reached at 352-1234. extension 1436, or spalermo@keenesentinel.com
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1 comment:
We're not hoping to limit the size of this development, we're hoping to stop the unnecessary destruction of another mountainous forest just for the sake of another contractor building something for profit that is not needed. There is no shortage of affordable housing in Winchester. For the past few years, many of these mini subdivisions have sprung up all over town; now it's a 32 unit, self contained complex on a mountain side; where's the industry? Why has Winchester become home to the workforce of Keene and many more school children that have to be bused there, accounting for our soaring property taxes? How can our ZBA and Planning Boards allow a contractor to cry undue hardship when they run up against laws meant to protect the community from just this sort of building? It's one thing to move forward with a Master Plan for the town, it's another to continuously strap homeowners with a soaring property tax bill to pay for it all. Has anyone bothered to use any common sense when making these decisions which affects all of the citizens of town?
With the housing and lending markets in the shambles they are in today and with many of our friends and neighbors struggling to keep up with mortgage and tax payments in a downward spiraling economy; perhaps these boards should be looking at a moratorium on new construction instead of allowing more. Common sense would dictate this is the right step to take for the sake of preserving our town.
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