Too big? Route 1 project for 132 condos faces zoning hurdles in Hampton Falls

HAMPTON FALLS — A proposal to construct 132 senior housing units and a commercial development on Route 1 is now in the hands of the town’s Zoning Board.

The board is expected to decide whether to grant eight variances for the project at 12 Lafayette Road at its December meeting.

The development comes from Joseph Faro for his vacant lots in Hampton Falls just before the Seabrook town line. It is a somewhat scaled-down version of his first proposal for the site, which once housed the former Luca’s and Faro Gardens restaurants.

The project was heard for the first time by the ZBA at its Oct. 26 meeting, but Faro floated his idea before the Planning Board at two design review sessions in September 2022 and January of this year.

Planning Board members expressed their opinions at those initial meetings that Faro’s first proposal — with multiple buildings, 11,000 square feet of retail, and 164 condos — was too large for the 11-acre wetlands-compromised site. Members also urged him to take great care that the architectural design of the structure conveyed a colonial look.

Faro’s new proposal before the ZBA appears to have followed the Planning Board’s feedback about the facade of the building, for it has a colonial design featured from its roofline to siding materials. In addition, the current version offers 132 one- and two-bedroom age-restricted residential units for people ages 55-plus, instead of the original 164 units.

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Route 1 project needs height, size, parking variances

However, the development still needs the ZBA to grant eight variances to go forward. The variances requested relate to exceptions to the town’s zoning regulations concerning height, size, parking, density, and use in the zone where it is intended to be built.

Faro’s design reduced the number of buildings down to one. However, it’s a large structure with a footprint of 58,000 square feet, more than twice the size regulations for the zone (25,000 square feet) and for an elderly housing building (10,000 square feet).

The 58,000-square-foot building proposed is a bi-level, multi-story structure that would sit on less than 1.5 acres of the lot. The rear portion of the building would be 58 feet high, or four stories, when the Business District South zone restricts height to 35 feet. The lower portion of the building closest to Lafayette Road steps down to 2½ stories in front, or 35 feet. However, that does not appear to include the height of the peaked rooftop.

Variances are also needed to allow residential use of 40% of the building on the first floor in the mixed-use complex in the zone, as well as one that would allow a bedroom density for elderly housing developments of 44 bedrooms per acre, instead of the eight per acre allowed in the town's Elderly and Multi-Family Housing overlay zone. A variance would also be needed to allow the maximum number of bedrooms in an elderly housing building to be 257, instead of the 24 the ordinance currently allows.

Requested is also a variance to reduce the parking space requirements to only 158 spaces, when 330 are required by ordinance. The required parking ratio is 2.5 spaces per dwelling unit, and the project’s proposal is 1.2 spaces per unit.

The opinions expressed by Zoning Board members at the Oct. 26 meeting were they believed the project was still too big. The variances requested are too expansive to adhere to the desires of the community, they said, which has always expressed that Hampton Falls retains its rural nature.

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Public weighs in on Route 1 housing project

A number of those who spoke discussed concerns for the additional traffic that a development of this size and scope would bring to an already snarled traffic situation on that portion of Route 1. Donald and Janet Towler, who live in the nearby Village of Pelton Farm condo complex, say they aren’t against having more housing built, since there is great need, especially for the elderly. However, they are concerned about the large number of units, asking if a compromise could be struck and fewer condos built. 

A letter written to the ZBA by resident Abby Tonry expressed concern the variances requested are for considerable changes to the zoning regulations Town Meeting voters approved.

“I do not feel applicants should be allowed to request you override the ordinances by 50, 100 and more percent of the original ordinance,” she wrote.

At the end of the meeting, after consulting with his client, Bosen asked that the hearing be continued so they could reassess.

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Sewer and water are needed for project to become a reality

No matter the results of the ZBA hearing in December, the project cannot be built without sufficient water and sewer resources, and Hampton Falls offers neither.

Faro’s attorney, John Bosen, stated several times at the ZBA meeting that the project’s sewer and water needs would be met by hookups with the town of Seabrook. However, Seabrook Town Manager Bill Manzi and Water and Sewer Superintendent Curtis Slayton said they have no applications from Faro for water or sewer hookups.

Slayton never spoke with Faro or his representative, and Manzi hasn’t heard from Faro in more than a year, he said.

Manzi explained Seabrook had no intention of extending its sewer lines to individual businesses outside the town’s borders. Seabrook has had conversations with Hampton Falls officials concerning extending sewer to the town, Manzi said, but no decision has yet been made.

According to Manzi, Seabrook’s position is “that an agreement with (the town of ) Hampton Falls would be required before any individual project would be considered.”

Further, Manzi said no one has ever spoken to him or Slayton about Seabrook providing water to the development. Given Seabrook’s already considerable industrial, commercial and residential water demands, that would be another matter entirely.

In January, Slayton recalled Seabrook once provided the 12 Lafayette Road site with a one-inch water main for the former Luca’s Restaurant and later Faro Gardens. The line hadn’t been used for years, he said, and a one-inch line isn’t sufficient for what they are proposing now.

Manzi added at the time the one-inch water main was “only sufficient for fire suppression.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Hampton Falls NH Zoning Board to decide on big Route 1 condo project