A multi-use site off Manchester Street and Black Hill Road that’s struggled to gain approval will be the subject of a public hearing before the Concord planning board Wednesday night.

Over two years have gone by since the project was first introduced. The first phase would include five multi-family apartment buildings, senior-specific housing and commercial space for retail stores, a restaurant, gas station, bank and car wash. 

The complex is located near Concord’s old drive-in movie theater on the east shore of the Merrimack River. The housing portion of the development would provide 385 units of housing at a time when new housing is an essential remedy for the state’s current crisis. Phase two of the project outlines a restaurant, medical office building and retail stores.

The pending application is to develop seven of the nine parcels that the trust owns spanning 92 acres. A major portion of the site is in a flood plain, which adds an extra hurdle to development.

Previously, the board tabled a hearing pending traffic studies and a flood map revision for the site. Now 30 months later, the future of the project remains undecided.

In February, Ari Pollack, who is representing the site owners’ ROI Irrevocable Trust, provided an update to the planning board. To accommodate an increase in traffic, plans suggest widening Black Hill Road and improving bus, pedestrian and bike routes in the neighborhood.

Pollack also identified two developers, Ron Dupont and Ducal Development LLC, who will build the multi-family apartment buildings and senior living area, respectively.

No action was taken at the February meeting and Pollack returned to the planning board last month in hopes of gaining site approval. Instead, a public hearing was delayed until December and a laundry list of improvements was in order in the interim.

City staff identified a number of issues – sewer capacity, access, and layout. Since site plans were first submitted, only small changes have been made, according to Heather Shank, the city planner.

However, Pollack outlined nearly a dozen site changes – including expanding access to driveways into the development, emergency access points, constructing parking for the Merrimack River trailhead and further investigation into water supply and sewer capacity issues – in response to staff concerns.

The public hearing was moved to the December meeting as some issues remained unresolved.

“I don’t want it to come across that this project was sitting on somebody’s desk for two years on the city’s side. We see these comprehensive development plans for these types of projects two, three, four times,” Planning Board Chair Richard Woodfin said at the November meeting.

The commercial development called Merchants Way by Exit 17 and the housing project known as the Railyards off of Langdon Avenue in the city’s south end came before the board several times before construction. Now, Monitor Way, another mixed-use development, is in a similar boat with multiple planning board meetings throughout the site review process, he said.

Planning board approval is not the only hurdle the project has faced, though. In 2021, a homeless encampment was cleared from the site, with Concord police issuing trespassing notices to the people living in tents there. Some nearby businesses were forced to move in 2022 to make way for traffic improvement and construction in the area, which has yet to begin.

The application to build in the flood zone is still pending, according to supplemental material provided to the planning board ahead of Wednesday’s meeting.

City staff recommends that the planning board approve the comprehensive development plan on the condition that it meets several requirements like driveway access for emergency vehicles; concerns over an intersection at Black Hill, Manchester Street and Old Turnpike Road; and evaluations of sewer and water system capacity.

If approved, it will be the first check mark of many for the project with major site plan and conditional use permits to follow.

Although developers initially envisioned construction in the spring of 2022, with the pandemic, site changes and the planning board process, Pollack recognized the timeline has been delayed.

“Big projects have big issues and they take time. We’re not looking to force anyone’s hand, we’re not looking to be unreasonable,” said Pollack at November’s meeting. “We’re looking to develop a working relationship so we can deliver a project that I think everyone agrees is better than what’s there now.”