On a 3-2 vote earlier this month, the Manchester Zoning Board of Adjustment granted a series of variances regarding to fence heights and frontage requirements for a property located between Mammoth Road and Melrose Street that its owner hopes will host of a 30-unit development.
The Manchester Zoning Board of Adjustment granted a series of variances regarding to fence heights and frontage requirements for a property located between Mammoth Road and Melrose Street that its owner hopes will host of a 30-unit development.
In plans provided to the Zoning Board, the land would have five buildings arrayed in a circle, each with six single-family townhouse-style homes. Access to the development would come from the northeast through Melrose Street and Ruth Avenue, although speaking on behalf of property owner Pierre Peloquin, Attorney Andrew Sullivan said that it would be acceptable to have a road that utilizes the property’s frontage on Mammoth Road. In the past, the Manchester Department of Public Works indicated that the Mammoth Road entrance could be tenuous, but Sullivan indicated that recent discussions with the Department of Public Works now show that such an entrance could be a possibility. If allowed, one of the buildings would move to accommodate the new entrance, although the development team wanted certainty before moving forward with that design approach.
Currently, the 4.66 acre property holds several dirt bike tracks and abutted by several apartments and an office building owned by Peloquin to the north, Faith Baptist Church to the south, and single-family homes to the east in addition to its adjacent roads. According to Peloquin, the proposed development would be a mix of two and three-bedroom homes and would be open to Section 8 applicants, following the trend at his apartments immediately to the north.
Several residents of those single-family homes expressed concern regarding flooding in the area that would be exasperated by the reduction of permeable surface area brought forth with the development as well as noise concerns and the additional traffic that would come through Ruth Avenue and Melrose Street.
Zoning Board Member June Trisciani asked why a secondary access point couldn’t go through the northern property, with Peloquin feeling that would not be safe given the pedestrian presence in the parking lot near the office building, which houses an orthodontist’s office.
Trisciani felt uncomfortable supporting a plan that may or may not have the Mammoth Road access road in the future, while Craig St. Pierre felt that the buffer space between the proposed buildings on the property and the neighboring properties as well as the planned green space would not harm neighborhood property values and the added housing was a benefit to the city.
St. Pierre was joined by Greg Powers and Robert Breault in supporting the variances while Trisciani was joined by Kathryn Beleski in opposition.
The property also needs site plan review from the Manchester Planning Board.
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