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Merrimack hotel plans get stayed by board

By Staff | Jun 9, 2016

MERRIMACK – Consideration of the final site plan for a 123-room hotel was tabled by the Planning Board on Tuesday, after members of the board voted to seek legal guidance before granting the applicant the subdivision approval necessary to proceed with the project.

The proposal, made by Woodspring Hotel Property Management, would allow an extended-stay hotel to be built in the parking lot of the former Merrimack Hotel and Conference Center. According to a streamed broadcast of the meeting, members of the board said they were pleased to hear a proposal for the site, considering it and the shuttered hotel hadn’t seen use in about eight years, but were unsure of certain legal considerations created by the application for subdivision permission.

The sprawling facility sits on the road leading to the Cinemagic movie theater, which has had several owners over the years.

Alastair Millns, board secretary, said before the board could move forward with subdividing slightly more than an acre of 4 Executive Park Drive away from the larger, 16-acre property, the board needed answers from the town’s attorney.

“May this planning board agree to a subdivision, which permits the new project to go ahead, but which effectively destroys the approval on record for the old hotel?” Millns asked. “We need the town counsel to tell us that we are within our rights to approve the subdivision, and effectively the site plan, even though by so doing we destroy an existing, approved site plan.”

The issue at hand seems to center around the fact that the current site includes a constructed, though disused, approved project – namely, the old hotel building. The new site plan does not include demolition of the old hotel building.

The application for subdividing the property was accepted for review and then tabled until the board’s next scheduled meeting on June 21.

After tabling review of the subdivision application, the board tabled the next agenda item – acceptance of the site plan for the hotel. Though the proposed site plan carried a recommendation for approval from planning board staff, board Chairman Robert Best said the board needed to settle the subdivision question before taking up the site plan.

“If we don’t approve the subdivision before we take up the next agenda item, there isn’t an ability to consider a site plan for a lot that doesn’t exist,” he said.

Full site plan review for the hotel will also be considered on June 21.

The board also held further conceptual discussion on a proposal to subdivide two lots into 17 at 123 Wilson Hill Road. The owner of the property, Brett W. Vaughn, has come before the board on four occasions in an attempt to satisfy the concerns of board members about whether his proposed subdivision would have a negative impact on the wells of abutting properties.

While the discussion was conceptual in nature, several abutters stayed through two hours of testimony to share their thoughts on the project, with more than one noting that their properties already struggled to gather enough water for daily use.

The entire planning board meeting can be seen at http://merrimacktv.com/online-video/planning-board.

Matthew Medsger can be reached at 594-6531, mmedsger@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_MattM.

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