Concerns raised about condo plan
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sarah Palermo
Sentinel Staff
WINCHESTER — Though the Boston and Maine Railroad tracks by Franklin Mountain have been silent for some time, the property next door has been generating noise in recent months.
Rindge developer Robert Van Dyke has plans for what could be Winchester’s first planned residential development, on the property, and will appear before the planning board Monday night for a continuation of a public hearing.
The project, off Route 10 just south of Westport Road, could create 32 new condominium units and a community center run by a homeowner’s association.
Plans show the units clustered on roughly 17 acres of the property. The remaining land, about 28 acres, would be protected in a conservation easement.
Van Dyke’s proposal has met with opposition at previous public hearings, and some concerned residents have been trying to gather more support for Monday.
Cope T. Homan and Michael Towne own properties adjacent to the proposed development, and have been involved with circulating petitions and fliers around town, hoping to limit the size of the development.
“I’m really not the type of guy that says ‘Don’t develop any of your land,’ but I do not believe, with the buffers and wells and all, that there is enough buildable land for this,” Homan said.
Van Dyke could not be reached for comment.
The developer recently faced lawsuits from a group including residents in Jaffrey, the towns of Dublin and Marlborough and the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests, for a development proposed near Mount Monadnock.
Margaret A. Sharra, Winchester planning board chairman, said the board was “not pleased” with delays in a five-lot subdivision project Van Dyke started on Route 119. The lots have been vacant, after most trees and brush were removed, for several months.
“We didn’t know at that time the things we could require in terms of vegetation to be left in place, or time limits on when it would have to be done,” she said.
“We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
More accustomed to working with smaller subdivisions, the planning board has hired a consultant from Stevens and Associates Engineering in Brattleboro, at Van Dyke’s expense, according to Sharra, to help members understand various surveys and studies of the property.
Sharra said the planning board has given the proposal serious consideration.
“This isn’t a two-lot subdivision and the board has been very careful, taking it slowly,” she said.
“We’re going to put in every reasonable protection for the town known to man.”
The Winchester Planning Board meets Monday at 7 p.m. at Winchester Town Hall on Richmond Road.