By Alex Malm
The Londonderry Planning Board met on Wednesday, Aug. 4, where the board heard from representatives of Pillsbury Realty Development, of the Woodmont Commons Planned Unit Development, for plans on a subdivision and a medical building.
It was explained by Jeff Kevan from T.F. Moran, representing the owners, that they were seeking permission to subdivide two of its lots on Pillsbury Road and Michels Way creating a 2.3-acre lot.
That lot, if all goes to their plans, would be used for the site of a medical office building.
Members of the Planning Board approved the subdivision without much discussion to start things off. One of the conditions for their approval came at the request of Londonderry Town Planner Colleen Mailloux who asked that they require that the cross access parking utilities and drainage easements be provided for review and approval by the town.
After the initial subdivision approval, the board heard a proposal from the company to construct a 19,792 square foot, two story medical office building and associated site improvements for the newly subdivided site.
Kevan explained that the building would be used for medical uses including labs, along with eyeglasses and nutritional supplements sales.
He said that they drafted the proposal with the help of input from many conceptual design meetings.
One of the big discussions during the meeting was in regards to the exterior lighting for the building.
At first Kevan originally explained that they were planning on going with a more standard form of lighting through poles instead of the modern ones that are part of the rest of the Woodmont Commons.
Members of the planning board had different thoughts and instead thought they should all be uniformed.
Londonderry Planning Board Chairman Arthur Rugg said that it would be important to have the lighting match the overall look in Woodmont.
“We’re happy to accommodate the request,” said Chris Nickerson of Nickerson Designs, who was tasked with designing the building.
Londonderry Town Councilor and Planning Board liaison, Deb Paul, asked if there would only be one bike rack on the property. Kevan said that right now that is what they have proposed.
She said that she thought it would be good to have at least one more in the rear of the parking lot, saying that they may be surprised about how many people ride their bikes there, especially employees.
Kevan said that is something they could do.
Overall the board was pleased with the look of the proposed building and the site.
“You’ve done a really good job with this. It looks really good,” said member Jake Butler.
Conditions put on the property for conditional approval included having the lightning match the rest of the properties, addressing any outstanding comments from the March design memorandum, and having appropriate signage or stripping for the ambulance spot and having the fire department approve it.
The conditional approval was approved unanimously.
Also at the meeting, the Planning Board also heard a site improvement plan for Londonderry Fish & Game, which was seeking approval to build a 5,000 square feet clubhouse on its property.
The clubs entrance is actually in the neighboring town of Litchfield, but most of the land sits in Londonderry.
Jason Lopez, of Keach-Nordstrom Associates explained that the club sits on two properties totaling 80 acres. Their plan is to build the clubhouse in the back of the property in the woods.
He said right now their building doesn’t have a septic system or electricity, which they will be adding with the new building.
“This will be a nice addition for the facilities out there,” Lopez said.
He told the board that the Heritage Commission and Conservation Commission both signed off on the proposal after meeting with them.
One of the main waivers that the club was seeking was to be allowed to have a gravel parking lot instead of a paved one.
Lopez explained that as part of the proposal for the new building they would be building 31 parking spaces in the parking lot, which would all be gravel. Two of the spots would be ADA spots meaning that they would instead be built with a concrete slab to meet the compliance regulations.
Mailloux explained that while they normally don’t allow parking lots to be made out of gravel this was a unique circumstance, which is why their staff was recommending it be approved.
“It’s not open to the general public and there’s no commercial traffic,” said Mailloux.
“This is a membership club only out in the back 40 out in the woods. We recognize that this is a very unique use,” she added.
The Board ultimately approved the waiver, with planning board member Roger Fillio having to recuse himself due to being a member of the club.
Lopez also explained that when they met with the Londonderry Fire Department they told him that the gravel access points need to be at least 20 feet, which he said they would be doing. Meeting the requirements about the regulations for it by the fire department was one of the conditions put on the conditional approval.
Overall multiple members of the planning board expressed that they were impressed with what they have proposed for the building.
“I think it looks beautiful,” said Paul, noting that it would be especially useful during the annual town kids fishing derby.
“You’re going to have a fine structure out there,” said Rugg.
The Board unanimously approved the plan.