Apartment buildings proposed on old WHEB site in Portsmouth gain key approvals
PORTSMOUTH — Developers proposing a residential redevelopment project at the former site of radio station WHEB has received key approvals from a city board.
The city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment voted to grant developers Prospect North the two variances needed to move forward with a plan to demolish the existing buildings and replace them with 72 residential units in three four-story, multi-family buildings at 815 Lafayette Road.
Preliminary plans filed with the city show that each of the three apartment buildings proposed for the site will have apartments on the second, third and fourth floors, with parking on the first story, and in front of the buildings.
Each building is proposed to have a 9,750-square foot footprint, according to the preliminary plans.
There also is a much smaller proposed office building, located adjacent to one of the apartment buildings, with a footprint of 1,200 square feet, according to the plans filed with the city.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment voted to grant the developers a variance to permit a front build out of less than 50 percent of the total front yard width and a second variance to permit a façade orientation that is not parallel with the front property line.
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The 19.6-acre site will be accessed from an existing driveway off Route 1 (Lafayette Road) and backs up to Sagamore Creek.
What board members say about project
Board member Beth Margeson made the successful motion at Tuesday night’s meeting in City Hall to approve the variances.
“This is the gateway district, the gateway district is meant to be mixed use, walkable, provide housing stock for the changing demographics of the area,” Margeson said about the zoning district where the property is located. “Presumably that means having a façade along the street. I find that this does meet the spirit and intent of the ordinance for those reasons.”
Margeson said “in terms of protection of natural resources” the proposed three-building development is “situated outside of the wetlands for the creek, which is a very valuable natural resource.”
She said the redevelopment project would not diminish the value of surrounding properties, which is one of the criteria the board must consider before granting variances.
“The proposed use is a reasonable one, this is for a multi-family dwelling unit in the gateway district, which is one of the purposes of the gateway district,” Margeson said.
Attorney F.X. Bruton represented the developers at Tuesday’s meeting, who he said are Mike Brown and Ed Hayes.
He stressed that no part of the proposed redevelopment would occur in the 100-foot wetland buffer.
“Obviously that’s a significant environmental upgrade in terms of what they could do,” he said.
He maintained that there will be a substantial environmental improvement thanks to the project, which calls for demolishing the existing building and the smaller of two antennas on site.
“The other thing we do is we take all those old buildings out and by doing so we take 12,000 square feet of impervious surface again out of that buffer zone,” Bruton said.
Big change for well-known location in Portsmouth
The WHEB radio station, which no longer operates at the site, was a longtime landmark on the heavily traveled section of Route 1 where the property is located.
The developers are also planning to feature a waterfront park area at the site, which is planned to be located next to Sagamore Creek.
The property is also located next to the Lafayette Plaza shopping center and to the east by Winchester Place.
The developer’s plans feature eight apartments on the second, third and fourth levels of each of the proposed apartment buildings, all of which would have parking on the first level.
All of the units shown in the initial plans feature two bedrooms with a living/dining room, along with one or two bathrooms.
The project will still need to receive site plan approval from the city’s Planning Board before it can be built.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth NH apartments at old WHEB site gain key approvals
