Lebanon
In an Oct. 3 letter to city planners, New London developer Doug Homan outlined plans to construct 186 senior housing units and 400 apartments on 86 acres between Route 4 and Buckingham Place.
He also hopes to build a 300-seat restaurant and 60,000 square feet of retail space on an adjoining 11-acre lot, which would be complemented by 400 parking spaces.
“The proposed development is consistent with the current vision for land development outlined in the master plan by seeking to develop clustered, more densely designed residential housing near existing village and town core areas,” Homan’s engineer Rod Finley of Pathways Consulting wrote in the letter.
The proposal was designed in the wake of a yearslong review of Homan’s so-called “Houses on the Hill” development, which sought to create a new neighborhood uphill from Mechanic Street.
That project was panned as too obtrusive by neighbors, who also worried the construction could contribute to the community’s flooding problems. The city’s Planning Board also took a critical stance when it ended a nearly 2½-year review of the subdivision in October 2017.
In their findings, the board pointed out issues regarding street and lot design, wetland protections and stormwater management.
The goal of the new plan is to “address the myriad of issues and concerns outlined” by the board, Finley wrote.
Plans set aside 197 acres on the hill for open space and conservation, which would include a relocated golf course in the “central and southern portion of the parcel.”
On the remaining space, Homan would build a mix of housing, including a 130-unit senior assisted living facility, 16 one-bedroom bungalows, 20 two-bedroom bungalows and 20 two-bedroom cottages complemented by 186 parking spaces.
He’s also proposing a 400-unit apartment building, which would be made up equally of one- and two-bedroom units, and would include 600 parking spaces.
The proposal appears similar to a mixed-use development that Homan considered in 2015 as an alternative to the House on the Hill project.
That plan, which was also named “King’s Grant Village Neighborhood,” called for a mix of single-family homes, office space and a four-floor hotel and brewpub along Mechanic Street, according to designs submitted to the city.
Homan and his engineers held several community meetings to discuss the development with neighbors, but decided not to move forward. At the time, they said community support would be necessary to change the property’s zoning, which would require a citywide vote.
The Carter Country Club property sits within Lebanon’s Residential 3 zone, which primarily allows single-family homes. To move forward with the new development, Homan would need to get 86 acres of the property rezoned for Residential 1, which allows for cluster developments. Another 11 acres would have to be rezoned for general commercial purposes to allow the restaurant and retail spaces.
Homan said on Wednesday that the new plans were not born out of earlier designs, but rather “the last three years with the Planning Board.” He declined to answer any additional questions over the phone, and did not respond to emailed questions before deadline on Wednesday.
The new plans were developed “over the past year” with input from Lebanon’s city administration and planning department, Finley, the engineer, wrote in his letter to the city.
“After two to three years of consensus building, the client has incorporated the specific direction and recommendations of the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Adjustment, Conservation Commission, Pedestrian & Bike Advisory Committee, and the public at large into the current proposal,” Finley wrote.
Dean Sorenson, a Wellington Circle resident and past critic of Homan, called the new proposal “a plan that’s got a lot of good ideas going for it.”
“To me, it meets all the criteria that I’m looking for when it comes to smart growth,” said Sorenson, a former City Councilor and Planning Board member, when reached on Wednesday.
The development would be built near a main intersection away from rural or conservation lands, and would provided needed housing and transportation to Lebanon’s seniors and workforce families, he said.
“When you look at the whole idea of the Master Plan and where Lebanon wants to go, we want to develop at the core and not scatter develop throughout the whole city,” Sorenson said. “You can’t get any more at the core than near a main intersection.”
What worries Sorenson are proposals to move the existing golf course, he said. The Carter Community Building Association has opposed moving the course, which opened on the site in 1923, and holds a deed restriction it says could prevent changes.
“I don’t want to spend two years again in meetings talking about something that can’t be done, even though it’s smart growth and I like smart growth,” Sorenson said.
But former City Councilor Steve Wood, who owns Poverty Lane Orchards and Farnum Hill Ciders, dismissed the new plans as “an extreme intrusion into the existing neighborhood.”
“I can’t imagine the city ever rezoning that land for general commercial. That would be a travesty regardless of the intent,” he said. “Meanwhile, there’s no way around it just being a traffic generator in a place where traffic is already a problem.”
Plans show the development accessing Mechanic Street from a “side feeder road” that would prevent congestion on the busy street. Still, engineers predict “some impact” to Route 4 during peak hours. A traffic count was not submitted with the proposal.
Wood said he believes that Homan proposed the 306-unit subdivision to scare neighbors into a more palatable mixed-use development — a move Wood hopes planners and the community will resist.
“The zoning regulations of any municipality are intended to benefit that municipality, and a municipality has no obligation to make sense out of somebody’s speculative investment,” Wood said. “My answer is ‘You should have thought twice.’ ”
The Lebanon Planning Board is expected to discuss Homan’s plans on Dec. 10 at City Hall.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.