Resident groups unite to fight Riverplace proposal

By ASHLEY SMITH, Telegraph Staff

Courtesy photo - W/S Development Inc. has proposed building a lifestyle center, like the ones seen in these photos of existing centers, where Green Meadow Golf Club currently sits. The project has drawn criticism from resident groups.

HUDSON – As two separate anti-Riverplace groups prepare to unite for the first time next week, planning officials are saying the project can’t be denied simply because citizens don’t want a huge shopping mall.

The 375-acre Green Meadow Golf Club property is privately owned and, according to Hudson Planning Board member Suellen Seabury Quinlan, an attorney, owners have strong legal rights when it comes to using their land.

“It’s not like we make the decision that, ‘No, you can’t build a shopping mall here’ . . . we have to look at the plan,” Quinlan said. “If it’s zoned properly and is a proper plan, we can’t say no just because we don’t like it.”

The meeting scheduled for Feb. 15 unites two informal groups. The first, formerly called Friends of Green Meadow, is made up of people who live near the golf club in the south end of Hudson.

The second is newly formed Hudson Grassroots Central, a network of more than 70 people who communicate through e-mail but have yet to meet in person. Last week, the group launched the Stop Riverplace Web site.

According to Ron Peters, a real estate broker in Hudson who heads the latter, the only link until now has been one man who participates in both.

Representatives from both groups say they’re interested in keeping an eye on all development in Hudson, not just Riverplace. However, both were formed as a result of the proposal to turn the 375 acres into a mixed-use development.

At full build-out, Riverplace would be home to the largest shopping center in New England, with more than twice the retail space of New Hampshire’s largest mall, The Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester.

A hotel and conference center, a river walk, big-box retailers such as Barnes & Noble, 600 units of housing, parks and office buildings are also part of the plan. The first phase would be a 1.1 million-square-foot lifestyle center.

W/S Development Inc. of Chestnut Hill, Mass., submitted a site plan application for phase one, the lifestyle center, in December. The planning board has just begun to review it and the process could take a year or more.

In response to speculation the planning board has already made up its mind to approve the project, the board plans to publish information about how the site plan approval process works, chairman Jim Barnes said.

“The concerns of the town that this is a done deal are not accurate,” Barnes said. “We’re at the beginning, not the end.”

Lifestyle centers are open-air shopping plazas that are modeled after American downtowns. In the development world, they’re fast replacing enclosed shopping malls.

If approved, this lifestyle center would be a blend of upscale shops, anchor stores, restaurants, a multi-screen theater, parks and common areas and an outdoor ice-skating rink.

Members of the two watchdog groups have said the development is too large for Hudson and will clog up already congested local roads. Several also expressed concerns about traffic from Nottingham Square, a 20-store strip mall under construction down the street, and a second strip mall that could go in across the street from Green Meadow but has yet to be proposed.

According to Quinlan, despite pressure from citizens to stop development in Hudson, the planning board has no legal way of doing so.

“The 10-year moratorium is legally . . . impossible,” Quinlan said.

Peters, in his initial request to start an anti-development group through letters to the editor in various publications, called for a 10-year freeze on building anything besides affordable housing in Hudson.

However, some of the Green Meadow neighbors, while sharing a concern over the impact of development on traffic, don’t believe that solution is viable.

Kathleen Leary, who lives near the golf club, said she realizes it’s probable something will be built on the site eventually, but takes issue with the massive size of this proposal.

Green Meadow is part of a golf course business begun by Phil Friel, a well-known New England golfer. Friel died in 1999, and his sons Dave, Thomas and Phil III now run the company.

The owners of the golf club have signed a purchase and sales agreement with W/S.

Leary said the upcoming meeting is designed to get Hudson residents to make a higher level of commitment to monitoring development. Though most who show up will probably be against Riverplace, supporters are welcome, she said.

The Feb. 15 meeting takes place at 7 p.m. in the Ann Seabury Community Room at the Hudson police station.

“It’s just about mobilizing people to get involved,” Leary said. “This is going to be a long process and it’s going to take a lot of time and effort.”

Although Hudson cannot turn down the project because voters don’t want a mall, Seabury said every developer who comes to town with a plan has to include road improvements that would accommodate the extra traffic.

“The applicants are coming in with an exorbitant amount of road improvements to the parcel, near the parcel,” Seabury said.

W/S has proposed creating an interchange system to and from the Sagamore Bridge Road, which connects Hudson to Nashua over the Merrimack River. The on- and offramps would lead directly into the Green Meadow property.

However, some opponents have claimed that won’t solve traffic congestion on Hudson roads such as Route 3A, Lowell Road and Dracut Road.

In order to build the interchange system, W/S needs a permit from the state Department of Transportation, which has just begun to review the plan, according to Craig Green, a state administrator for highway design.

Barnes said the planning board has denied plans in the past because a developer has not agreed to certain traffic improvements.

However, Riverplace project manager Ed Vydra has said W/S is willing to work with the town to accommodate its traffic concerns.

The planning board’s next public meeting on the project is tentatively scheduled for March 28.

What’s next?

MARCH 28: Planning board tentatively scheduled to discuss Riverplace plans in public session.