An Additional 600 Unit Development is Proposed by Waterford

AN ADDITIONAL 600 UNIT DEVELOPMENT IS PROPOSED BY WATERFORD

At the November 1, 2004 meeting of the Manchester Conservation Commission, it was announced that the Waterford Development Corporation plans additional residential development on Hackett Hill. The buildings, a condo complex, will be built in the area adjacent to Hillcrest Retirement Complex off Countryside Boulevard - land that had been owned by Catholic Medical Center. The lot planned for the development is Lot 16 on Manchester Tax Map 766. Ironically, it is one of the two lots submitted by the Sierra Club and NH DES to the NHDOT as an appropriate secondary mitigation area for the widening of I-93. (The other lot was Lot 17, which is currently being developed.)

Lot 16 represents the only remaining large greenspace (approximately 121 acres) north of Countryside Boulevard in Manchester. It borders The Nature Conservancy's Preserve, and is heavily forested. The development will be approximately 110 acres in size, with CMC retaining about 12 acres.

The tax map for this area can be found on an archived page of this Web site titled "Final Optima Health Subdivision Plan", where it is used to explain part of the Hackett Hill preserve-development issue as it stood in 2002.

Waterford presented a conceptual plan of the development to the Conservation Commission on November 15, 2004 and to the Manchester Planning Board on November 18, 2004. At the Conservation Commission meeting, the Waterford developer, Robert Shapiro, was challenged by Pat Mattson, a Sierra Club member who attended the meeting. She pointed out that the Record of Decision for the I-93 widening FEIS (Final Environmental Impact Study) had not yet been made public, and that the Sierra Club and the DES had appealed to the Federal Highway Authority to require that Lot 16 be bought by the NHDOT as secondary mitigation land. She challenged Mr. Shapiro's statements that Waterford's "upscale" condos would be beautiful, and said that instead, it is the forested areas presently on that lot that are beautiful. She noted that the development is at the very end of a cul-de-sac (Countryside Boulevard) that is already subject to heavy traffic, due to Waterford's apartment buildings and single-family homes construction. She also pointed out that Lot 16 abuts The Nature Conservancy's ecological preserve, and that it is a habitat for large wildlife such as moose and deer - animals that move back and forth between the two properties. She noted that Waterford's present projects on Countryside Boulevard had wiped out large areas of pristine forestland and characterized the present appearance of that area as "development gone wild."

The Planning Board meeting on November 18 was a scheduled Business Meeting and the public was allowed to attend, but could not make comments. Todd Connors, a Planning Board member, expressed concerns about the location of such a large development at the end of a cul-de-sac and requested that the developer furnish further information on that situation. (The possibility of the construction of a new road leading from the development to Dunbarton Road was discussed briefly.)

Waterford will appear before the Planning Board at a future public session when plans for their 7 year development project become more finalized.

On November 20, 2004 the Manchester Union Leader published an article by reporter Mark Hayward which was titled ""Nice, quite place" threatened." Hayward had interviewed residents of homes in Waterford's ongoing Countryside Boulevard single-family homes development. He found that property-owners were disturbed that 600 units were to be constructed near their newly-purchased homes. Hayward noted that if Waterford's latest plans materialize, more than 1600 homes would be located along Countryside Blvd - more homes than can be found in entire towns such as Chester (1,250 homes) and New Boston (1,460 homes.) Hayward also interviewed Alderman Armand Forest, alderman from Ward 12, the Hackett Hill ward. Forest also expressed concern about Waterford's latest plans, especially noting the proximity of the development to the TNC Preserve.

On January 6, 2005, Waterford appeared before Manchester's Zoning Board of Adjustment. Robert Shapiro requested a variance for the height of the condo towers planned for the 600 unit development. The existing zoning ordinance for the locale limits the height of apartments/condos in that region to three stories. Shapiro claimed that four story buildings would "reduce the impact on the land" and claimed that TNC and the Conservation Commission supported his viewpoint. An abutter to the property, Paul Herman, who owns land on Dunbarton Road,criticized the Waterford request, but the Zoning Board unanimously approved the variance. Moreover, Chairman Steve Freeman praised the Waterford residential development projects already underway on Countryside Boulevard, referring to the apartments and houses located here as "quality development."

It would seem that Chairman Freeman should consider the quantity of the development instead of its quality. The Sierra Club has frequently pointed out that the large number of apartment buildings and houses comprising the Waterford projects have given the area the appearance of a "second city" in northwest Manchester - a former semi-rural area - and noted that the projects create "urban sprawl" and were undertaken without any consideration of effects on the natural history of the area.

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