Richard and Virginia St. Cyr can finally move forward with the subdivision of their 28 Auburn Road property, albeit not as they had originally intended when they purchased the parcel nine years ago.
“When we first requested an approval of this subdivision, the vote was one short of obtaining a grandfather clause for our personal driveway (which was not being sold) and had nothing to do with the subdivision,” Virginia St. Cyr wrote in a statement she had planned to read at an Oct. 8 Planning Board public hearing on her subdivision plan but instead gave to the Londonderry Times. “The result was a hold on the entire project unless we, at our own expense, could take the curve off Auburn Road to obtain the site distance. Three developers came and went.”
When she originally purchased the parcel, St. Cyr planned to develop a six-lot subdivision. But due to the economic climate and meeting conditions related to site distance and bonding for the roadway, St. Cyr had to put the project on hold.
St. Cyr said the Town improved Auburn Road this year, stopping short of their parcel by just a few feet.
The Board voted 7-0 to separate off the more than 100-year-old home on 1.33 acres of St. Cyr’s property, allowing her to sell off the remaining 8-plus acres and find someone else to develop it as they see fit. She will be able to subdivide into two parcels, one she will keep and one she can sell to a developer to do as they please.
Expressing concern with the proposal was St. Cyr’s neighbor, Tim Patten of 29 Auburn Road, who wrote in a letter to the Board that he is worried about site lines to his driveway, as well as speed on the road itself.
Since the Board granted her conditional approval, taxes on the subdivision have totaled $35,000 and a contract of sale is valued at $400,000.
“You have no idea how many lives this has had an effect on. I am sorry for any inconvenience or loss inflicted on any of my neighbors,” St. Cyr said.