LRCD publicly shares plan for Mill Pond housing development in Ashland

ASHLAND — Lakes Region Community Developers has added a page to its website where residents can find detailed information about the proposed Village at Mill Pond housing development. The page can be found online at LRCommunityDevelopers.org/MillPond.

“There has been a lot of misinformation circulating in the community about the project,” said Executive Director of LRCD Carmen Lorentz. “We thought it would be helpful for Ashland residents to have access to the applications, maps, traffic study, environmental assessment, and important correspondence with the town.”

The Village at Mill Pond, proposed at 35 Mill Pond Lane in Ashland, will offer 76 units of townhouse style rental housing — 60 two-bedroom and 16 three-bedroom apartments — as well as four single-family lots to be developed in partnership with PemiValley Habitat for Humanity. 

For the rental units, the monthly rent will be approximately $1,215 to $1,460 for a two-bedroom apartment and $1,400 to $1,680 for a three-bedroom. The property is not subsidized housing, which means applicants must demonstrate they have sufficient income to afford the rent.

LRCD originally proposed 60 townhouse style rentals in a mix of two- and three-bedrooms, and a two-story building with 26 one-bedroom units of senior housing. In February 2024, the Zoning Board denied LRCD’s variance request to allow the senior apartments in the project to be smaller than the 750 square foot minimum required in the town’s building ordinance. LRCD subsequently revised its plan to the present configuration of two- and three-bedrooms because that was the only way to make the project financially feasible.

“It is too bad that the town wouldn’t allow us to do the one-bedroom senior apartments,” said Lorentz. “There is very high demand for senior housing in this market. That component would have done quite well and been a benefit for local retirees. It also would have reduced the number of school-age children in the development, but for some reason, the Town didn’t want that.”

The 28-acre former industrial site is zoned commercial/multi-family with an allowable density about twice that being proposed by LRCD. The site has access to municipal water and sewer, adding to its suitability for multi-family housing.

LRCD has worked with the Lakes Region Planning Commission’s Brownfields Program for the past two years to conduct the environmental investigation and remediation planning necessary to seek funding for clean-up of the Brownfield site before it can be redeveloped as housing. As part of this process, Nobis Engineering has completed a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment and is currently working on the report for the Phase II after having done extensive testing on the site. LRCD previously remediated two Brownfield sites in Laconia, which they subsequently redeveloped into multi-family housing in 2004 and 2016.