By Chris Paul
During the Town Council meeting on Monday night, June 5, a large group or residents from The Nevins Community were in attendance to voice their concerns about a piece of property that has been controlled by the Conservation Commission for about 20-years and is now being looked at as a site for high-density homes.
The property is located at 35 Gilcreast Road and it abuts the Nevins community behind Home Depot.
During the discussion to release the land of its Conservation Easement, Town Manager, Mike Malaguti, made it clear the land they were talking about was the land referred to as the “Orchard Lot” and not the land that directly buffers the Nevins from the orchard.
Malaguti said, “There is no proposal to develop or can this area be developed. It is to remain as open space.”
He also made it clear that there is about 640-feet between the Nevins and the nearest property line of the land they will be discussing.
It was also stated that there was a fence being asked for by the Nevins Board of Directors, between the lot being sold by the town and the Nevins buffer property. A prohibition on garden-style apartments was also requested to be written into the sales agreement by the Nevins board.
Malaguti stated that both of these requirements are currently in the sales agreement.
Malaguti explained that discussions originally began around 2003 with Mesiti Development when they were planning to construct a 361-unit development spread across both properties, including where The Nevins is now. At that point the town voted to purchase the land for $2.9 million and impose certain development rights in exchange of Gilcreast discontinuing the 361-unit plan. The Nevins Community sits on a significant section of the property.
Malaguti added that there is no access to the property along Gilcreast Road currently and there is some level of contamination on the lot from the use of pesticides being used on fruit trees.
The agreement that was originally drawn up when the town purchased the development rights states that the town can revoke the easement at any time.
He said it states, “The town, by appropriate town vote, may amend or revoke the conservation easement in part or in entirety.”
In 2022, a Warrant Article was proposed by the town to release the easement on the property for no less than $2.65 million. Another was to take $750,000 of that transaction and require land of equal or greater value with the remaining money to be used for the town’s general purposes. The two articles were passed by the Londonderry voters and Malguti added that the Conservation Commission supports the sale of the property.
The discussion on Monday night was to have the Town Council approve the release of the conservation land or to make change recommendations.
Council Chair, John Farrell, allowed some discussion from the public at the meeting.
Kristen Haroian, an abutter to the property, asked about the contamination on the property, concerned that these contaminates might become airborne.
Farrell explained that a number of inches of topsoil would need to be taken from the site and mitigated, but didn’t know if contaminates would become airborne.
Malaguti further explained that the mitigation would be controlled at the Planning Board stages of the plan.
Resident, Dan Bouchard, who has spoken about the plan on a number of occasions in the past, asked about what the town paid versus what they’ll be getting back.
It was explained that the town paid for the entire lot and they are only selling about $1.23 million of that land.
Bouchard also explained that from what he has heard, there is going to be a minimum of 96, three-bedroom units put on the property. He was concerned about the number of children being added to the school system.
He was told that the number of children brought to town from a 96-unit development would be 16.
Bouchard added that right now the property is not costing the town any money, but when it developed, it will. He asked the council to examine how much that would be.
Another resident, Ray Breslin, also had a number of concerns on what would be done with the contaminated soil taken from the site.
He was told that the Department of Environmental Services and the Environmental Protection Agency would be responsible for that.
The consensus from the Town Council was to move forward with the sales agreement. It will be discussed at the next Conservation Commission meeting.