A wooded section near 96 South Ridge Road where an entrance road is to be built for a proposed 19 home development in Manchester.
Residents of a quiet Manchester neighborhood near the Londonderry town line are speaking out against plans to put a 19-home subdivision across 31 acres of wetlands, calling the idea "beyond ludicrous."
Representatives of Bryant Road Development, LLC, went before the Manchester Planning Board recently with an application for the Whispering Woods subdivision, which proposes putting 19 single-family buildable lots on 31.04 acres that are presently undeveloped with wetlands.
Brent Cole, owner and principal engineer of Granite Engineering LLC, said the subdivision would include a 28-foot wide road that loops back in on itself, with access off South Ridge Drive.
"The roadway will be city-owned, it will meet city standards," Cole told Planning Board members. "The roadway will have municipal water, private sewer, underground electrical, natural gas and a closed drainage system."
A wetland runs through the middle of the property, with other smaller wetlands throughout the parcel. The project proposes subdividing the parcel into 19 parcels and the construction of 2,770 feet of roadway through the property, accessed from South Ridge Drive. Stormwater from the roadway will be managed through stormwater ponds throughout the property (bioretention ponds, surface sand filter, and infiltration pond).
The proposed roadway crosses the wetland in two locations where 48-inch reinforced concrete pipes are proposed to maintain connectivity of the wetland. Stormwater from the site moves through the wetland to an adjacent unnamed stream and ultimately discharges to Cohas Brook.
During a public hearing on the application, several residents raised concerns about the project. Luke Roberge, a native of Manchester and South Ridge Drive resident for 20 years, said construction of the development would not be a "quiet process."
"It would certainly be quite noisy for the community, and this community is a very quiet community," Roberge said. "People walk the streets. Kids can play in the street because that's the type of community it is. South Ridge is at the end of a dead-end street, and accessing it is not going to be easy for another 20 or so homes. The water pressure at times is nonexistent, adding that many homes would be beyond ludicrous. At the end of Bryant (Road), some years ago, we lost a home. It burned down to the ground because of lack of water pressure.
"What would happen if we had that many more homes in our community? Disastrous."
Christine Chambers is also an abutter on South Ridge Drive.
"I'm told that several inquiries by various developers have been made over the years about developing these wetlands," Chambers said. "It was a bad idea then, and it remains a bad idea now. This development includes building a road between 99 and 73 South Ridge Drive -- a map doesn't fully capture what a small, narrow space that actually is. There are 14 children that live just on either side of the space. These kids, other kids in the neighborhood, their families and the kind folks in the neighboring condos and 55-plus community walk this loop on a daily basis.
"Years of construction equipment making that tight turn in and out, followed by 19 houses worth of new traffic, will be a huge safety concern for our existing neighborhood."
Kenneth Leblanc, a retired city employee and Bryant Road resident, raised more concerns on water pressure.
"The end of Bryant Road, they have issues where the water is less in the evening," Leblanc said. "If my irrigation is on and I'm taking a shower, and the people up at Bryant Road are having problems now, and you add 19 or 22 homes to this area, and we're all using the water pretty much at the same time in the evening, that water pressure is going to go down for the other people at the end of Bryant Road."
Vince Chambers of South Ridge Drive is concerned about increased vehicular traffic and speed.
"I have been known to perhaps maybe speed a little bit too much up and down Bryant Road," Chambers said. "I would submit to you that another 19 houses, another 20 vehicles, or potentially 40 vehicles -- it's like the Indy 500 down Bryant Road, and we have young children. There are no less than 14 children under the age of 10 that live in this South Ridge Drive space."
A decision on the subdivision application is expected at a future meeting of the Planning Board, likely in March.