Green light for 100-RV campground on Route 3

LACONIA — The Planning Board gave approval for a 100-unit RV campground to be developed along Route 3, near the Meredith town line. The action came during a meeting held Tuesday night.

Although the board endorsed the project, the developer’s request to waive the requirement to install a sidewalk failed.

The application, submitted by Char-di Land Holdings, LLC and presented to the board by Nick Sceggell, an engineer for Dubois & King, calls for a seasonal campground with spaces for 100 RVs, along with the construction of a pool and bath house. The parcel, an 11.2-acre lot, is located across the road from Hackmatack Campground, and is uphill from Beaver Pond Estates, a residential development accessed from Rollercoaster Road.

Because of the sloping terrain, and ledge underneath, water drainage was a key concern for the board, as well as for the downhill abutters. Ultimately, the board approved the site plan, which calls for a “rain garden” — a vegetated depression — at each camper site, intended to collect and filter rainwater, then feed it into underground drainage systems, which are designed to direct the water into existing swales on the landscape.

The applicant’s request to waive the city’s requirement that new developments construct sidewalks was not approved, however.

Sceggell argued there weren’t any nearby sidewalks with which to connect, and that there wasn’t any critical infrastructure in the area to walk to, such as schools, health care or religious centers.

The board wasn’t persuaded, though, and as Chair Peter Brunette noted, the requirement for subdivisions to include sidewalks is part of a city ordinance.

Board member Michael DellaVecchia spoke for the spirit behind the ordinance.

“This is our opportunity to make that neighborhood safer,” DellaVecchia said, adding that of the hundreds of people who would be likely to spend their summers at the campground, many would walk to Funspot, or to eat and drink at The Looney Bin or High Octane Saloon. “The expense [of sidewalks] is a pittance, the improvement for the area is tremendous.”

The board showed more leniency when it came to the developer’s request to bend a requirement to bury power lines. Sceggell said they would have to work with Eversource to install electric service, and the utility company said there’s a wait of several years to get the kind of transformers, necessary to step down the power to residential service levels, that rest on the ground. Pole-mounted transformers are easier to come by, though.

As a compromise, the board agreed to permit the use of pole-mounted electrical service along the edge of the property that abuts a proposed boat storage facility, but to run power lines underground along the property line that abuts a residential development.