The Heritage Commission shared a number of recommendations in its design review of a proposed workforce housing development on Stonehenge Road, emphasizing the group’s desire to see the aesthetic appeal of the apartment buildings enhanced.
Plans for the residence at MacGregor Park include the construction of 12 buildings with 24 units each, as well as a clubhouse with a pool.
Architect Dennis Mires said the proposal features three primary building types, each to house one- and two-bedroom units.
“We break up the scale of the building ends with gabled forms that project,” he said, noting the grade of the site declines moving to the rear of the property, with the buildings’ height to increase as the grade decreases.
Mark Fougere of Fougere Planning and Development said the grade change from the front to the back of the 63-acre site is 40 to 45 feet.
Mires proposed using two colors on each building, as well as a mix of materials to add texture and ensure the development looks residential.
The 12 buildings would be broken into neighborhoods, with each of the buildings in the smaller groupings to feature a different color.
Deb Paul, who is publisher of the Londonderry Times and lives in the area of the proposed housing project, recommended the developer consider adding shutters to the windows, or window boxes to make the project look more inviting.
“I agree with (Paul), it definitely has to have some sort of ornamental feature in the front, because it looks ‘hospitalish.’ Shutters, I think, would take away from the institutional look of it,” alternate member Noreen Villalona said.
“No disrespect to the architect, but I think it’s very institutional looking,” Town Councilor Jim Butler agreed. “I think you need to make it look more like a village. This is surrounded with some residential and I think we need to tone it down. I have seen applications like this where there are so many buildings, it’s like driving into a hospital.”
Paul also expressed concern over the long-term maintenance of the buildings, and how the development will wear over time.
Mires said in terms of long-term maintenance and buildings that don’t start to look worn over time, shutters and window boxes are the first aspects of a complex to deteriorate.
“Shutters put on double windows like this are strictly decoration. There’s no relation to function or image, it’s just a little strip of something or other,” he said. “They look out of place on larger windows, and on smaller windows they look overdone. We don’t usually recommend them for those reasons, but we’re listening.”
The apartment buildings are to be constructed in phases over three years, with construction to begin at the front of the site and move back.
The developers have submitted to Planning staff a landscaping plan for the project, which features 3 percent open space, trees and shrubbery at the front of the buildings and throughout the property.
The main entrance for the complex is proposed on Stonehenge Road, with an emergency access to be constructed to the west.
Fougere said they plan to flank both entrances with boulders reclaimed from stone walls on the property.
When describing a small structure to be constructed at the main entrance for children waiting for the school bus, Villalona and Paul also urged Fougere to drive along Stonehenge during school bus hours, noting dangerous conditions due to the traffic at that location.
Other recommendations from the Commission included additional storage for tenants and construction of a recycling center on the property.