Board OKs 83 condos near park
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Freeman Klopott
Keene Sentinel Staff
Ashuelot River Park in Keene is going to have a new neighbor — 83 condominiums.
After more than two years of back and forth between the Keene Planning Board and the developer, the Boston-based Mayo Group, the planning board gave the project a green light Monday night in a 6-3 vote.
The development has met stiff opposition from Ashuelot River Park officials and residents in the surrounding neighborhood, who have said the 75-unit, 52-foot-tall, T-shaped building that will sit as close as 60 feet from the park’s edge is too big for a neighborhood with mostly single-family homes, and will cast a dark shadow on its surroundings.
The plan also calls for four separate two-unit townhouses on the 3.5-acre lot that currently serves as an overflow parking area for Colony Mill Marketplace and as access to Ashuelot River Park.
The Mayo Group owns Colony Mill and The Center at Keene.
When the project was first presented to the planning board in June 2005, the board instructed the developer to find alternative parking spaces to meet a city ordinance requiring a minimum number of parking spots for each square foot of office, residential and commercial space.
It took the group 18 months to track down enough parking to replace the spaces on Ashuelot Street, and it has signed a lease with Public Service Co. of New Hampshire for a parking area south of the marketplace, the Mayo Group’s attorney, Thomas R. Hanna of Keene, said last month.
At their last meeting in August, planning board members indicated they would support the project if it was scaled down, but Monday night, the developer presented the plans without any changes.
And although most board members continued to say the building was too big for the neighborhood, the majority voted in favor of the plan because, board members said, it meets the city’s 19 building standards — covering everything from drainage to wetlands protection to landscaping — they must rely on when reviewing a project.
“Between the last meeting and this one, I hoped for a smaller footprint, it’s too large,” said board member Louise Zerba.
“Unfortunately, it meets the standards and as much as I’d like to not support this, I have to,” she said.
Mayor Michael E.J. Blastos — who sits on the planning board — and members Robert L. Mallat 3rd and Vicky Morton voted against the project.
“The massive wall is going to obliterate the beauty of Ashuelot Park and I think we have to take into consideration that Ashuelot Park is a natural gem,” Blastos said.
Board Chairman Peter D. Bradshaw said he understood the arguments against the project, but had to disregard the emotional appeals when casting his vote.
“I do have concerns about this (project), but as to the standards, I have to support it … I don’t like it,” Bradshaw said.
Also Monday night, the public hearing on the Marriott TownePlace Suites hotel proposed at the Valley Green Motel site on West Street was continued to the board’s next meeting on Oct. 22.