Major mixed use development of apartments and commercial buildings proposed in Bow

By JOSH MORRILL

Monitor staff

Published: 03-06-2022 8:15 PM

A proposal for residential and mixed-use complex on a wooded, 42-acre lot along Logging Hill Road in Bow is facing pushback from neighbors who are concerned about traffic, the design of the project and why a similar plan from the same developer was denied in Nashua.

The concept for the complex includes five apartment buildings, all 56,096 square feet, a 10,000-square-foot retail and commercial space and two mixed-use buildings intended for research and development companies. The larger building is approximately 48,000 square feet, while the smaller of the two is near 28,000.

Kevin Walker, vice president of engineering and construction at the John Flatley Company and the man who would head the project, presented the proposal to the Bow Planning Board Thursday, after multiple neighborhood meetings discussing the practicality of the project.

He stated that the original plan included seven apartment buildings, but that has been scaled back to give more space between structures.

“We had buildings that were 50 to 200 feet from houses, now we’ve got distances of 600 to 800 feet,” he said. “You can see this is all a remaining true buffer all the way around now.”

If eventually approved, the project would begin construction in spring of 2023 and take around one year to complete, according to Bow Director of Community Development Matt Taylor.

Issues that were brought up by the planning board and have continued to hamper the proposed project include how to access a water supply and concerns coming off exit 1 of Interstate 89.

Taylor said the N.H. Department of Transportation and the Bow Board of Selectman came to an agreement in recent years on reconfiguring the treacherous exit as part of the Bow-Concord highway project, but a formal proposal for this development would likely put that into motion. He said the town would work with the Department of Transportation on how to adjust the exit.

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In his presentation, Walker stated that the commercial buildings could possibly utilize wells, but that the project as shown would need to access a public water supply. To do that, Taylor said that the Bow waterline would need to undergo an extension. To fund such a plan would require the town to continue the Tax Increment Financing that they’ve used to extend it in the past, but the funding for an approved project would be the first domino to fall, as many of the tax dollars would be contingent on it.

In a letter to the planning board, Logging Hill Road resident Susan Paschall expressed her displeasure with the proposed project, and noted the development would do little to alleviate the area’s lack of affordable housing.

“Gilbert Crossings in Merrimack, another Flatley project, rents apartments sized between 784-1131 square feet for $1852-$2350 monthly,” the letter read. “Those are tiny apartments and not considered affordable rents for today’s workforce pay scales. Assuming that rent should not be more than 28% of one’s income, an individual would have to make over $70,000 a year to afford the smallest unit at Gilbert Crossings.”

She also echoed the concerns of abutters from the Feb.15 informational session citing the water and traffic hurdles.

Paschall questioned the plan for the research and development facilities as well.

“Proposing a research and development facility and retail along with high-density apartment buildings seems like an odd configuration, but Flatley was denied a very similar proposal in Nashua last year,” she wrote. “That plan was for a R&D facility and 266 ‘multi-units,’ along with 28 townhouses. It looks like that rejected plan from Nashua is just being modified for Bow. How convenient.”

She asked the board not to dismiss the neighbors’ concerns.

“There is very clearly more of a need to attract commercial development to the town and help with the property tax burden than to construct overpriced apartment units,” she said.

Taylor said the project’s logistics will likely change following site assessments, especially the traffic evaluation, as the exit redesign would cause an overhaul to aspects of the plans.

The planning board emphasized that the town has expressed a desire to see the Logging Hill Road area get developed but that they want it done correctly and will make sure their decisions are precise.

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