Fecteau housing project extension denied
Toolbox
Times Argus staff - Published: November 30, 2008
MONTPELIER – A proposed development project that would provide more than 200 units of housing has been sent back to the drawing board.
In a decision issued Nov. 17, the Development Review Board denied an additional extension on the Capital Heights subdivision proposed by Fecteau Residential. A conditional subdivision approval was granted by the board in January 2007, the additional extension would have given the developers until 2012.
Had the extension been granted, the project would have been in the conditional approval stage of review for four and a half years, according to the decision, signed by Philip Zalinger Jr., chairman of the Development Review Board. Final approval of the applicant's proposal for the development was contingent upon the applicant addressing 15 outstanding conditions on the application. Plans included single- and multi-family units, as well as housing for seniors.
In a letter from the company, dated July 18, Viateur Fecteau stated that because of the "significant turn downward" of the housing market, the project could not "be feasibly done in an uncertain market." Because the extension was denied, Fecteau Residential must re-apply for a conditional subdivision approval.
Meant to be a three-part project, the proposed Capital Heights Subdivision was to be located on two lots between River Street and Isabel Circle. The application was for constructing a subdivision that would include 45 single family lots, five multi-family lots, a lot containing 60 units of senior housing and one commercial lot with frontage on River Street. There is 77.8 total acres between the two lots, according to the conditional subdivision review that was approved in January 2007. Phase one would have included 60 units of elderly housing, 28 condominium units and the development of a single commercial lot. That phase was expected to be developed and occupied within four years.
Phase two included 29 single family lots and 46 condominium units, which was to be completed within six years of permit issuance. Phase three, also expected to be complete within six years of permitting, was to include 16 single family lots and two multi-family buildings with 40 condominium units.
Approximately 5,250 feet of road was being proposed for construction, along with two back-to-back cul-de-sacs. Traffic studies had been conducted and former Superintendent of Schools John Everitt had confirmed that the city's school system could serve the addition of 44 school-age children expected from the development.
21