Look Off Rock OKed

The Planning Board this week approved Southworth Development 's plan to develop a waterfront unit condominium complex at The Weirs.

Look Off Rock, consisting of 19 townhouse units, will be built on a five-acre strip of sloping land between Scenic Road and Lake Winnipesaukee crossed by the railroad corridor leased to the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad. The units are divided among five buildings, one with seven units, two with four and two with two. The zoning ordinance permits up to six units per acre in the shoreland residential district. The townhouses will be two-bedroom units on three levels, with garages, built in a rustic or Adirondack style, using natural materials.

Chris Duprey, project executive with Southworth Development, said that two years were spent designing and engineering the project. The engineer, Nick Porell of SGC Engineering in Westbrook, Maine described the stormwater treatment system as the most advanced in the city and stressed that to ensure against erosion no site work would be required down grade of the foundations.

Duprey requested a waiver of the requirement to build a sidewalk along Scenic Road, offering instead to construct a pathway in the railway corridor to specifications akin to those of the Winnisquam-Opechee-Winnipesaukee (W.O.W.) Recreational Trail. Although the Planning Department favored a sidewalk, the Department of Public Works acknowledged that drainage on Scenic Road would hinder the construction of sidewalk along its length.

The Planning Board denied the sidewalk waiver and required that once eight units were occupied, Southworth Development must begin constructing either a sidewalk or a pathway or forfeit additional occupancy permits. Moreover, the board specified that whichever option the developer chooses must be complete before the city would grant more than 12 occupancy permits.

Duprey told the board that he anticipates that work at the site will be underway by the fall, stressing that there would be no construction traffic during Motorcycle Week.

Southworth Deveopment also owns parcels of 8.1-acres, 10.7-acres and 7.3-acres at the foot of Brickyard Mountain across the street, on the west side of Scenic Road. Duprey has indicated that plans are underway to build 72 units, divided among three buildings, on the 8.1-acre lot, which will be merged with the remaining lots into one 26-acre parcel with a maximum density of 156 units.