At the Sept. 23 meeting, the Town Council rejected a proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Town of Londonderry and Tarrytown Real Estate Holdings, the group that is building a 90-plus unit mental heath facility near the airport.
The agreement failed in a 3-2 vote, with the majority thinking it wasn’t strong enough to protect the town’s interests.
The project has already been allowed to begin contruction and this contract was one of the conditions to be okay’d.
Town Attorney, Megan Carrier, explained that on May 1 the Planning Board gave conditional approval for the project expected to be at 6 and 10 Innovation Way, in order to have a behavioral health hospital there. The one condition was that they enter a MOU with the town about safety policies and demands on municipal resources
“The condition of approval specifically requires that the Londonderry Town Council approve that memorandum of understanding,” Carrier said.
She explained they have been working on coming to an agreement, saying they mostly agreed right away with the safety requirements, and most of the negotiation centered around the demands for the police department and emergency services.
One of the proposals the town had would be to have the agreement reexamined in order to see if there are additional costs needed to be recouped as part of having the facility in town, due to the demand on municipal resources.
Carrier said the applicants rejected that option, and instead offered $5 million, instead of $4 million for municipal resources.
Town Councilor, Ron Dunn, said he thinks the review would be in the best interest of the town, and was concerned taxpayers would be on the hook, after the funds run out.
Town Councilor, John Farrell, who helped negotiate the proposal, said if the hospital expands, they would have to revisit the MOU.
“We have done what is in the best interest of the Londonderry taxpayers,” Farrell added.
Fire Chief, Bo Butler, said anytime there is a new business in town, there is a “draw” on the service. He added that they did research on how many calls per day they may receive with the type of facility by contacting other communities. He added that some communities didn’t respond and some didn’t provide concrete information, but said the data they did find was there would be about one call per day.
“However there is data, there is fact, and then there’s experience,” Butler said, explaining when they had a similar type of project come to town, they were expected to have six calls per year, but really had 12 on the first day.
“Experience tells me otherwise,” Butler said about the one call per day estimate.
Attorney, Ari Pollack, who was representing the applicant, said they did their best to find data about similar locations, but said it was hard to find direct comparisons. He said that they looked at and considered many different factors when it came to the “endowment fund” they were creating to help with things like added strains on public safety plus “annual taxes every year,” that they would be paying.
Town Councilor, Shawn Faber, said he thinks they should wait until they get more data saying the way the current proposed agreement is set up would force them to look into a “crystal ball.”
The MOU proposal was ultimately rejected on a 3-2 vote, with Farrell and Council Vice Chair, Ted Combes, voting in favor of the agreement.