New plan for New Salem adds more apartments

LACONIA — Members of the city’s Planning Board will review an amendment to the site plan for a potential housing development on New Salem Street at their meeting on Tuesday night.

The planning board meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, at City Hall downtown.

The property, located at 77 and 97 New Salem St., is the former location of a Salvation Army thrift store. KNM Holdings, LLC is proposing to merge three lots and construct 48 units of housing across eight, three-story multifamily buildings.

Utilities will be upgraded and line of sight for the parcel will be improved, according to a city staff report. Other planned improvements to the property include a mail room, paved parking, parking garages, walkways and landscaping.

In March, members of the planning board heard a conceptual presentation from Kevin Morissette, principal on the application for the development, who initially discussed the construction of 11 buildings with four two-bedroom, one-bathroom units each to be rented out at market rate.

The revision to the site plan calls for fewer buildings, but four additional housing units.

The property is connected to municipal water and sewer utilities and, Morissette said during his first conceptual presentation, has plans for more than 80 parking spaces.

The property at 77 New Salem was most recently assessed at $404,850, and has two buildings upon it, according to a property database. 77 New Salem Realty purchased the 1.2-acre parcel in 2010 for $350,000.

The other address to be developed is 97 New Salem, also owned by 77 New Salem Realty. The 0.48-acre parcel was purchased in 2017, for $195,000, and was most recently assessed at $243,700.

In their application to the planning board, developers note the existing property at 77 New Salem comprises an approximately 8,000-square-foot wood frame commercial retail building, a 8,000-square-foot commercial warehouse building, a 1,200-square-foot pole barn and a 1,100-square-foot garage. Other features include a concrete pad, dumpsters and paved parking.

The combined parcels were surveyed at 1.93 acres, or 83,893 square feet. There’s approximately 20,623 square feet of green space at present. Proposed improvements include the construction of about 25,582 square feet of new buildings, and 33,915 square feet of new paved parking and walkways. The construction will result in approximately 3,770 square feet of new green space, a 5% increase over existing conditions.

The planning department assessed impact fees in the amount of $3,481.37 per new dwelling unit. In a letter to the department from Ethan Wood of Normandin, Cheney & O’Neil, the law firm representing KNM Holdings and Morissette, Wood said his client is requesting a waiver of 80% of the impact fees associated with the development.

“This project involves taking existing commercial structures, razing them, and building 48 new, two-bedroom, residential units. This property is where the former Salvation Army thrift store was located and some office space, but a majority of the buildings on the premises were being used as storage,” Wood wrote.

“Some of this space was underutilized and/or vacant at the time of KNM’s purchase of the property. The existing structures have been removed to permit the construction of eight, three-story apartment buildings. This use changed the property’s use from under-utilized commercial space to residential space.”

Wood argued the proposed development is located within the Urban Commercial Zone, and meets the city’s requirements to waive a portion of the assessed impact fees, and not granting a waiver would burden the developers unreasonably.

“Given the applicant’s plan is to take the existing and mostly vacant commercial and storage space and convert it into residential housing, this project meets the criteria set forth for receiving a waiver of up to 80% of the assessed impact fees and that is what the applicant is seeking with this waiver request,” Wood wrote.

Demolition of buildings on the parcels has already begun.

If the planning board approves their application, they’ve got until May 6, 2030, to finish the development.