Lebanon
The first phase of 54 homes in a residential neighborhood off Route 4 near Lebanon Middle School is complete, along with construction of Mountainview Drive and a new pump station, said Jon Rokeh, a Chichester, N.H.-based engineering consultant hired to work on the project.
Will 117 more units planned for the 40-acre property along Prospect Street, Manchester developer Brady Sullivan hopes to begin construction in the next few months, Rokeh said.
Plans to subdivide the land originated with Lebanon natives Erik and Treff Moulton. Their company, M&M Equities, was awarded site plan approval in 2005, and it set about work on the first phase until the project fell on tough financial times.
By the summer of 2009, the Moultons filed for bankruptcy with only six homes complete. The mortgage deeds were sold a year later to Brady Sullivan, which changed the development’s scope from high-end homes to those selling between $180,000 and $255,000.
“I think the market just fell out,” Brady Sullivan principal Shane Brady told the Valley News in 2010. “We can afford to do a more affordable project.”
The company worked with the old approval plans until 2014, when it came before the Planning Board asking for amendments to the location of emergency gates. The board’s response is where Brady Sullivan’s current problem stems, according to Rokeh.
In its approval, the board said the project would have to “achieve active and substantial development or building” by April 14, 2016.
Brady Sullivan missed the deadline and didn’t ask for an extension, said Lebanon associate planner Maggie Howard-Heretakis. So, the project will require another public hearing and site review, she said, essentially starting over the Planning Board’s review.
“We needed to be substantially underway with the project and we had not gotten to that point when the approval expired,” Rokeh said. “We essentially never got started.”
Rokeh is optimistic that review will go through quickly, though. He said each city department already has the 2014 plans and signed off on them during that hearing process. Since the plans haven’t changed, the board shouldn’t find any additional problems, he said.
“All we’re doing is taking those plans back to the Planning Board and saying ‘these are the initial plans,’ ” Rokeh said.
The project’s second phase is planned to create 43 single-family homes and 74-townhouse-style units off of Prospect Street and Hillcrest Drive. Five new roads will also be created, and three will end in cul-de-sacs, according to planning documents.
While opposition to the project was at times fierce in 2005, it’s not certain neighbors will put up staunch resistance this time around. Many of the development’s most vocal opponents have either died or moved since the approval and, with 11 years passed, the project isn’t often on the mind of many left.
“I’m surprised it’s going forward,” said Gordon Sargent, a Hillcrest Avenue resident.
He said many in the neighborhood used to attend Planning Board meetings to discuss the project’s impact, but he hasn’t been involved since the 2005 approval. Sargent said it’s also unlikely he’ll get involved in this review process too.
Pete Johnson, whose property abuts the property off of Woodland Road, said he doesn’t intend to get involved either. He accesses the hill from Route 120, rather than Route 4, and said he expects about 100 feet of woods to protect him from the project.
“I’m probably not as interested in opposing it as the people who live across the lawn,” Johnson said.
If Brady Sullivan is able to gain approval, Rokeh said, developers hope to begin construction within a few months. Ideally, crews would have the majority of the infrastructure work complete in 2017, with some finishing touches on the cul-de-sac possibly extending into 2018.
The Planning Board is scheduled to discuss the project on Sept. 12, at 6:30 p.m., in City Hall.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.