Planners get look at Meredith Neck cluster development

A representative of a Portsmouth-based real estate company came away from Tuesday night's meeting of the Planning Board with generally good reviews for its plans to develop the 77-acre Windover Farm on Meredith Neck Rd. During a pre-application consultation, planners learned that Merton Winn Corp. intends to subdivide off the existing farmhouse into one large lot and "cluster" seven new homes on the balance.

A number of neighboring land owners attended the meeting and will doubtless follow the planning process very closely.

After the meeting, Mike Garrepy said the firm he works for has the land under contract from the current owners of record — the Roy L. Atteberry Revocable Trust, Leighton C. Atteberry and Gail Fusco.

The tract runs from Meredith Center Rd., on the west, down to Kelley Cove on Lake Winnipesaukee. Something over 500-feet of primary shoreline is included.

Surveyor David Dolan told the board the farmhouse lot will be in the neighborhood of 28-acres. The cluster development will be accessed from the east via a new 1,500-foot roadway off Powers Rd., with the entrance located just south of the Y Landing Marina.

Dolan indicated the developer would like the entrance road to be of gravel construction but Selectboard Chairman Bob Flanders said he had a "severe lack of enthusiasm" for such a proposal. "If your just running that up the flagpole, I think I've taken a chainsaw to you flagpole," he added.

Planning Board Chairman Herb Vadney complimented Dolan and Garrepy for a design that keeps homes back, away from the lakeshore. The seven house lots in the cluster development range in size from 1.7 to 3-acres in size. Homeowners would reach a commonly owned lakefront area via pathways through the woods.

The town's cluster development ordinance requires 50-percent of the land be preserved as open space and Dolan said the common area for "Windover on Winnipesaukee" would be in the 31-acre range. The tract was said to hold nine-acres of wetlands.

Garrepy told the board he would likely would submit a formal application for site plan approval in time to be put on an August agenda.

Town Planner John Edgar asked the developer to furnish data showing what the lot yield would be if Windover Farm were to be developed conventionally, not as a cluster. He indicated he had concerns about two of the lots shown on Dolan's plan and cautioned against creating house sites that would need Zoning Board of Adjustment wetlands relief — for setbacks from wetlands, etc. — before they could be approved.

Edgar also expressed concern about the length of some of the driveways needed to reach the primary subdivision road. He said the Planning Board would want to walk the property before the formal approval process gets underway.

Garrepy pledged to work closely with the neighbors throughout the planning process.

In other business, the Planning Board told Rusty McLear of Hampshire Hospitality Holdings it would not be necessary to go through a formal review process in order to subdivide one of the retail buildings in the Mill Falls Marketplace complex.

Edgar had told the board that McLear's plans did not include a "change of use." "It's not a big deal," he said.

McLear told planners his company will subdivide the 3,600-square-feet most recently occupied by The Porch & Pantry into two spaces; one will be occupied by an art gallery and the other by a clothing and antiques store. "There will be zero change outside," said McLear.