The Peterborough Planning Board conducted a preliminary hearing for a proposed Open Space Residential Development at 360 Middle Hancock Road on Monday. The development would convert seven existing rental houses on the property to market homes and build 19 additional structures.
The project expands the Walden Eco Village, owner Akhil Garland said on Wednesday, an intentional, sustainability-focused community that emerged from the property’s original purpose as housing for Well School employees. The Eco Village is structured to provide affordable housing with a focus on sustainability and community, he said, and the proposal is to expand, bring existing structures into compliance, and offer some of the community’s long-term renters an opportunity to purchase their homes. The project strongly meets the town’s OSRD goals, Fieldstone Land Consultants Field Engineer and project representative Chad Branon said, with dense clusters of quarter-acre lots maximizing open space, and retaining existing community agriculture.
Thirty-three people attended the virtual meeting, including several current residents of the Walden Eco Village. Several abutting landowners expressed concern over how the project might affect aquifer capacity, erosion, wetland quality, traffic, and viewsheds. “This proposal constitutes a 58 percent increase of total residences along Middle Hancock Road,” Mike Tompkins said, while several current residents have already experienced well water issues. Other listeners asked for clarification on the property’s trajectory from its cited purpose it subdivided ten years ago.
In 2005, the Well School’s master plan referenced the intent to purchase its campus from the Garland family, as well as the space behind the campus to house families of faculty and staff, an agriculture area, an eco village, and a maintenance and shop area, Garland said. The property was subdivided when the school purchased its campus in 2010, at which point the seven cottages uphill were described as temporary housing for Well School affiliates. As time passed, the school walked back its intent to buy the rest of the property, Garland said, and fewer school affiliates were renting the cottages, which each had their own bathrooms but shared a cooking space in a communal building. “The combination of increased property taxes and a shortage of housing within Peterborough prompted us to offer housing opportunities to others over the years,” he said.
Currently, the cottages on site are not permitted to be full-time year-round single family dwelling units, Town Planner Danica Melone said. When asked to explain compliance issues that neighbors and Planning Board members referenced at the Monday meeting, Garland pointed to the transition away from Well School use, as well as a number of tiny houses that were constructed several years ago, initially built to house seasonal farm helpers, graduate students, and others looking to experience simple living. They were exempt from building permits at the time of their construction due to their extremely small square footage, he said. “They have provided fabulous experiences for farmers, students, and people interested in living in Peterborough who normally would not afford to be able to do so,” he said.
As part of the initiative to get existing buildings into compliance, the tiny houses will be removed, and the seven cottages will be equipped with kitchens, Branon said. The 19 new proposed homes would have 1,000 square foot footprints, he said, and each would have its own septic and a well, and would be accessed via Garland Way and a communal parking area.
The project will next need a revised site plan, Melone said. Residents can review the current application in Peterborough’s planning office.