Hudson handed unique opportunity

Nashua Telegraph - Published: Friday, May. 18, 2007

RRiverPlace as of Wednesday officially slipped into Hudson’s might-have-been memory book, done in by competitive market forces and the difficulties of its own complex development plan.

Hudson now gets a shot at steering future development of the 375-acre Green Meadow Golf Club before any actual plan is put on the table for its approval.

The golf club owners say they still intend developing the unique parcel, but they’ll approach the Hudson Planning Board on Wednesday to discuss possible options.

Given the opportunity, Hudson planners should think long and hard about what they’d like to see on that parcel. Ideally, the course would make a beautiful park for the town. It could be Hudson’s own Greeley Park, giving the town that is bordered entirely on its west side by the Merrimack River a substantial amount of waterfront frontage to call its own.

However, acquisition costs could put that vision out of the realm of financial possibility, unless substantial federal and state grants were available.

Carving the land into so many house or condo lots would be simple, but that would fail to make the best use of that large open space while a commercial use such as an upscale hotel-conference-recreational center might be in order.

Planners, residents and the Green Meadow owners may have many other ideas for the parcel. It’s time to roll them out, even if they are only maybes. A reasonable wish list could lead to the distillation of acceptable options.

RiverPlace, which would have been New England’s largest retail center, was an ambitious plan, but traffic concerns were its Achilles’ heel. The feared congestion on Lowell Road hadn’t yet been fully addressed and the tie-in with Exit 2 presented some tough challenges.

Down the line, the disposal of waste would have needed special consideration as Hudson has nearly maxed out its allowable treatment capacity at the Nashua wastewater plant. And while these issues and many other complexities might have been worked out, it would have taken a lot of time to do so.

Meanwhile, three other smaller lifestyle-type proposals are entering the active planning stage – the Chelsea property in Merrimack, the newly proposed Nashua Landing in Nashua and the renovation at Nashua’s Pheasant Lane Mall. They would have snatched up prime tenants while RiverPlace was left behind. There’s also a case to be made whether four lifestyle centers would have exceeded the acceptable saturation level for this area. So W/S Development Inc., seeing the writing on the wall, opted to abandon RiverPlace and partner with the Nashua Landing project, which is across the river from the golf course.

Some Hudson residents are delighted the RiverPlace plan has fallen through. They feared the mega-shopping center would have destroyed Hudson’s small town way of life. It probably would have.

Others favored the plan because it would have brought new job opportunities, new dining and shopping venues and a hugely broadened tax base.

Circumstances beyond Hudson’s control have given the town the unique opportunity to get on the ground floor for the future of the Green Meadow tract.

The town should aim to make the most of this unforeseen situation.