The Francestown Planning Board is scheduled to continue discussing a proposed subdivision and lot line adjustment to property owned by Ron and Melissa Shattuck, as well as a site plan application hearing for their already-built indoor horse riding arena, at their next meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 17.
The Shattucks are proposing a subdivision that would create four housing lots on Stevens Road, and one accessed from Woodward Hill Road. Survey project manager John Lefebvre of Meridian Land Services presented a schematic which had each housing lot at about three acres in size, with the rest of the land in a 24-acre parcel where the Shattucks currently have an indoor riding arena and horse paddocks.
The proposed subdivision lies within the town’s only nationally registered historic district and is one of five areas in town that warrant historic district protection, Board member Sarah Pyle said. That makes the project subject to the town’s Open Space Development ordinance, Pyle said, which is aimed at preserving open space and siting buildings in a way that’s “sensitive to existing natural and historic features.” An Open Space Development subdivision design tends to cluster houses within the subdivision and sets aside other parts of the property as permanently protected open space, she said. No Open Space Developments have been built in town since the ordinance went into effect, Pyle said.
The proposal would almost certainly need an alteration of terrain permit from the state, Board Chair Karen Fitzgerald told the applicants, due to the large area they cleared and stumped on the property this year. “That’s a big issue, I think we need to look into that more,” she said.
Lefebvre said that a redesign that accommodates Open Space criteria would be cost prohibitive, and argued that clustered housing would look even more out of place on the site than the initial proposal. Fitzgerald responded that a proposal like this was exactly why the Planning Board adopted Open Space Development regulations. Lefebvre also said the Board hadn’t previously mentioned the possibility of an alteration of terrain permit. “I would expect, as the engineers that you are, that that would be something that would occur to you,” Fitzgerald said. The Shattucks confirmed that no disturbed topsoil had been removed from the site.
Attendee Bissy Tolman said she preferred the Shattuck’s original subdivision proposal to an Open Space Development. Several other members of the public spoke out against it.
“This application is a classic example of what we don’t want. It sets a terrible precedent,” David Jonas said, and that it’s likely been decades since Francestown has seen an application for a substantial subdivision. It would be very difficult to deny future applications if this proposal was approved, he said. Attendee Greg Neilly said he represented more than 30 residents who are pursuing legal counsel over their concerns for the proposal.
The Shattucks recently updated a site plan application for an indoor riding arena they constructed in the past year. The application, if approved, would give them permission to use the facility commercially for riding lessons. The arena’s intended use was at the crux of a Planning Board meeting earlier this summer. The Planning Board plans to address the matter after the subdivision hearing concludes, Pyle said.
The national historic district, which encompasses Old County Road South, Birdsall Road, and Stevens Road (listed under its former names as Pratt/Clark Road), is referenced in the Land Use chapter of the 2017 Francestown Master Plan. The historic area was one of five that warrant historic district protection, as identified in a 1991 survey of all structures, sites, objects, burying grounds, and cellars in town, according to the plan.