New construction up the hill from Weirs
 

This might have been discussed before but I couldn't find it.

What is the new area of construction, actually clearing that is taking place up the hill from Weirs across from water park.

126 new condo townhomes starting at $199,000......I forget the name of the place though. And I wonder who is going to buy them all in this slow market. I suppose over time with the boomers retiring they will move, but the townhomes at Moulton Cove down behind the Weirs look to still be mostly not sold.....so I wonder how long these can afford to sit empty until the real estate market picks up ?
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HONDA CB1000

It's "Shaker Hills"
 

It's called "Shaker Hills", and is the project of one "Vatche Manoukian". Seems to have come to a screeching halt lately,however. AFTER they clearcut most of the trees. You'll find a aerial view of it at http://www.lakesregionaerials.com/ph...rs_B_g128.html

Nice web site FLyguy!! :D:D

It looks like Shaker Hills, or Lakewood Village, or whatever name that they are using is never going to get built. A neighbor up there said she heard that they are bankrupt.
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Roor bongs

Well isn't that great. A giant eyesore, all for nothing. I think that is nothing short of criminal!

I agree. What a mess it is up there ! I know that the neighbors up there have been to city hall over & over again because of the condition of the land concerning run off problems and such.
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KAWASAKI KDX220A

Construction
 

I could never understand why towns dont require a finished road and drainage before construction begins.
Starting to look better up there now.

Companies like that should be required to post a performance bond with the town so if they do go belly-up the town can recover enough funds to remedy runoff situations, etc...

Too Much
 

Another "local guy" making a big impression ? ...ya right :laugh::laugh: this city is too concerned taking in all the big bucks to really care what's going on in our town anymore. This along with all the B/S construction, pretty soon it will look like Las Vegas,only with a lake. Remember when it was just Ma and Pa camps? Ahh the good old days bowling on the beach and fresh donut's on Sunday's


PS..thank you and nice photo flyguy

Update
 

Recent flyovers have shown little or no change, other than the addition of some erosion protection. SOme large storm/drain pipes have also appeared. I believe the project is on hold, and is now being "stabilized" at the request of the town.

Believe it or not, Ironhorsetim, there are some town employees who really do care. I sometimes share my images with them, and they do pay attention to how things are developing at any site.

I agree with Seeker, though: developers should be required to post a performance bond. I see WAY too much of this thing from the air.

Condos
 

My bad I thought we were talking about the new development across from Cumberland farms. Which looks like an upgrade from the tent and trailer park.
Shaker hills looks like another empty hole.. hello laconia ! any end in site for condo development? Such a beautiful spot we have here at Winnipesaukee, lets over develop it for tax revenue :rolleye2:

Let them go up and sit there awhile then call and offer $150,000 for one. :D

No Early Drainage
 

Putting a finished road and drainage in before the construction begins would be like carpeting your new house after the framing is done.
When the lumber delivery trucks and the 75,000 pound concrete trucks show up to make deliveries on a hot day, think of the mess it will make of the new pavement. The rear 8 wheels on those trucks scrub whenever they aren't going straight and even the front tires turning when the vehicle isn't moving will dig up the pavement. The city would end up with some lousy new roads.
As for the drainage, most construction sites will absorb rain and run off is minimal. If you put the drainage in before the construction is complete the catch basins and pipes will be full of gravel.

performance Bond
 

Laconia and most towns require performance bonds, there is a longer answer but that is short easy one.

The senior housing complex in Meredith across from the Canoe gas station is planning an auction to sell 29 Condos they have not been able to unload.
In spite of all the bad mortgage information and the huge inventory of unsold homes the town is pressing to build a huge amount of new worker housing units on Boynton street.
You have to wonder when half of the 5000 lots and homes in Meredith are assessed under 200k why we need more worker housing. With all the foreclosures and inventory why don't we just give them the homes already built and foreclosed.

Performance Bonds
 

Let's ask
 

I believe you are right Waterbaby. Who can we ask in Government? Instead of endless debate, let's put the question to the decision makers. Post the qustion in the Laconia Times? Bring it up at a Town meeting? Sorry, I would love to ask the town council but I am not a citizen! A tax payer yes, a voter no.

From my planning board days, the extent of bonding is typically limited to covering work the town would need to do should the developer fail to complete. For example, in a development that would include roads (construction and full paving, curbing if spec'ed), water and sewer utilities, perhaps drainage-related work like retention ponds or environmental impact work like silt barriers.

Pre sales
 

If the developer wants to be able to sell the product before completion the AG requires a performance bond be in place. Depending on the type of development, it can vary for example in commercial applications many times a reclamation bond is all that is required, and a performance bond is required for what ever effects the towns well being. In a subdivision, the AG requires one, but the town also requires one so that the lot owner can pull a building permit before all the infrastructure is complete, it is a way of protecting the lot buyer. It should also be said that it doesn't have to be a bond it can be a LOC or cash.

Someone should plant a new tree in the very middle of the mess. I drive by that place everyday. It looks horrible. Heck we should get a bunch of people together and go plant some trees in there.....:D

apparently not.....

Don't you just love it. Classic case of money buying influence.

Once again, they pave paradise and put up a parking lot...

Ya gotta wonder about a town's master plan when something like this happens... blek!

Another example of bad city planning...
 

Here is yet another example of the Laconia city planners allowing a developer to tear down every tree in sight and add lots of pavement so it resembles the rest of the Weirs and Downtown Laconia. It is time these planners go back to school and learn how to do their job. It is a shame there is no master plan for the Wiers and get it to look like it was back in the 30's.

It won't be long before someone turns it into another tent city during bike week.

?
 

I visited there meredith bay, aqua folks this past weekend to support the Boys and Girls club, and I have to say I am very impressed by how well the house blend into the surrounding (green roofs etc) from the water it is hard to tell they are even there, I actually am happy having now seen what they have done that it is them doing the look off rock property and not some one else, if anything this is a great improvement to Weirs, and I hope it rubs off on the other land owners in the actual Weirs,
Just a thought :)

More condos
 

Recession? What recession?

I'll agree that planning needs to be improved in quite a few towns in the state, some have something worth saving, others not-so-much. What I mean by that is some areas of NH are in serious need of a rehab, I believe the Weirs is one of these places. As much as everyone would like to have things be like "back then," in reality that is not going to pay the bills. When an area becomes run down it brings in a different breed of folks, (take a look around next summer on a weekend afternoon and tell me you do not agree) an update to the facade on the Boulevard is really needed and something new to the area would bring in new folks. I am not talking about replacing things every few years like Las Vegas, but in reality the Weirs is the eyesore of the lake compared to what other towns around the lake have in place along the water front. I know it would be nice if it was back to "when I was a kid" but was it really any better or because you were a kid you did not care what was going on around you.

Think long and hard about how long all the entertainment venues in the lakes region have been in place, Funspot, Boulevard, Surf Coaster (gone), Weirs Beach Water Slide, go-karts across from the beach, across from Funspot, Mini golf. It has all been here FOREVER and yet we are all wondering why the Weirs is looking worse and worse every year. It is very nice to see these venues return year after year, but how many are still owned by the same people that started them, I can think of one.

This area is in need of a complete facelift and a solid plan about what that will look like needs to be put in place. Then bring in the investers and make it happen.

This could be wishfull thinking but maybe it will be possible to build a side trail from the newly built developement to the WOW Trail on the west side of Paugus Bay?

Somewhere in the vicinity of the Laconia stump dump on Hilliard Rd and where Pickerel Cove enters Paugus Bay would seem to be a right of way path for a side bicycle trail. Isn't there a public road that accesses the waterfront railroad right of way on the south side of Pickerel Cove.

Riding a bicycle from the hilly Weirs area down to and around Paugus Bay, down Laconia's Main St, across the big intersection of Main & Union to go food shopping at the supermarket across from the MVSB & Laconia Savings......how's that sound? Sounds pretty good!

Very nice bicycle ride along the shoreline of Paugus Bay....and mostly peddling on the flats....which makes for easy going.

An imaginary Weirs Beach conversion in November 2011: "We need to go buy some food, Dearie! Yes, well today is a nice warm November day so lets go take the bicycles around the Bay to get to the stores.....good idea, Honey!D"

Paugus Bay Access
 

Both roads on the north and south side of Pickerel Cove are private roads.

Not according to the Laconia map that shows them as public.

Harglen Lane, the road on the north side of Pickerel Cove has a green Laconia street sign and it does not say 'private' in small letters underneath Harglen Lane.

It runs about 1/4 mile to the end where it abutts the railroad track with enough room to make a u-turn in a car, plus there's no 'no trespassing' signs at the end, next to the railroad track. It looks like a well maintained, smooth compacted sand and gravel type road with some expensive waterfront homes.......nice neighborhood!

Even if it is a private road, does that mean it can exclude use by pedestrians or bicyclists as opposed to motor vehicles, who use it to access the proposed W.O.W. Trail to be built on the inside area of the rr right-of-way?

Behind the two-acre lot that is home to the City of Laconia, Hilliard Rd Brush Facility (unpainted wood & brush under 3" Dia only), on adjacent and nearby Hilliard Rd, there is acres and acres of undeveloped sloping wooded land that seems to be undeveloped all the way back up to Route 3, close to the entrance of theMeredith Bay, aka Akwa Soliel, developement.

I believe these undeveloped woods are the proposed area for the new to be constructed Akwa Woods-Del Bocco Vista developement, or something?

Having easy access to the W.O.W. Trail via Harglen Lane would seem to be a very nice amenity for the local residents. A nine mile long , pedestrian, bicycle, roller blade, non-motorized waterfront paved trail running from Laconia to Meredith and straight through the Weirs.

So.....what's not to like? Could be a great way to work off some excess weight....on a bicycle.....while on a commute or a trip to Laconia- Main St.

Weirs project revised to expand unit size + More
 

Today's Laconia Citizen:

Weirs project revised to expand unit size


Laconia:
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<TABLE><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>By RON TUNNING
Special to the Citizen

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Developer Skip Kelly won approval last night from the city's Planning Board to add a three-bedroom model to his list of cottages being built in his Weirs Beach Village project located on Endicott Street North.

The three-bedroom units will be constrained in size to a basic "living space" footprint of no more than 1,000 square feet, and can represent no more than 20 percent of the total number of units approved for construction.

The board also limited the number of bathrooms per unit to two, and restricted garages to a dimension no greater than 24 feet by 24 feet, large enough to accommodate two vehicles.

In seeking the Planning Board's endorsement of the change, Kelly explained that in the current market he's finding a demand for three-bedroom units in a project originally conceived as affordable, modular housing offering a typical floor plan of one or two bedrooms averaging a little less than a 900 square foot "living space" footprint. To conform with the "living space" footprint, additional square footage will be provided in second-level loft areas.


Kelly acknowledged that adding a third bedroom will likely increase costs from $139,900 for a two bedroom to $169,900, which raised concerns among some Planning Board members that the elevated prices undermine the commitment to provide affordable housing.

City Planning Director Shanna Saunders, however, observed that by restricting the number of three-bedroom units in the project "we can keep it as affordable housing."

Planning Board member Warren Hutchins concurred, noting that even a $169,900 price tag was low. "You don't find many new homes being built for that," he said.

Board members Jerry Mailloux and Tobias Paddock, however, were not convinced and voted against the motion to approve the three-bedroom units.

Attorneys Pat Wood and Rob Dyer, along with engineer Steve Smith requested that a public work session be conducted before final language is adopted on a new "Steep Slope" addition to the city's planning ordinances. All three stressed the importance of seeking input from a wide range of people and businesses who would be impacted by any new requirements or processes enacted. The Planning Board agreed to conduct such a public session sometime following its next meeting in January.

The board was equally amenable to a request by the Remington family to adjust lot lines on its subdivision on Pendleton Street. The alterations merely shift square footage from lots 2 and 7 to lots 1 and 6 in order to accommodate the residences planned for the site.

A bit less agreeable was the design review of the Meredith Bay Mid Rise Condominiums on Scenic Road, part of the development originally known as Akwa Vista. While the developer was praised for having incorporated into the plan single-level units in three, five-story buildings, concerns about the absence of any plans for sidewalks along Scenic Road were aired by board members Mailloux, Hutchins and William Contardo.

While acknowledging that constructing sidewalks would be challenging and expensive, the board strongly recommended that the developer return with a plan to better accommodate pedestrian traffic.

Two abutting homeowners raised the issue of storm water runoff arising from the project and developments further up the hill. Philip Asack of 639 Scenic Road complained that storm water is threatening his property, backing up his septic system.

"I've been there over 25 years," he explained, "And I never had this problem before."

"Ever since Akwa was built, water has consistently been coming down the hill," added Mark Ortolani of 596 Scenic Road. "This last rain washed away my driveway."

The Meredith Bay developer promised to address the board and abutting property owners' concerns as design plans evolved.

From Today's Citizen
 

Read entire article HERE

That's kind of too bad. I hope the Weirs doesn't turn into all condos eventually. I suppose if it was residential all along and then they wanted to turn it into the Weirs as it is now, people would have a fit. But to be honest, the Weirs is the Weirs, the way I always remember it and I hate to see it change. I think Old Orchard Beach in Maine is going the same way and I see it with sadness.

I believe this is in the area of Christmas Island, about a mile away from Weirs Beach. There are other developments and potential developments much closer to the Weirs.

R2B

Too Many
 

At just under 1/4 acre per unit it still seems way too dense for the area. It's less than that per unit if you consider the 'green space'. Just imagine all the new traffic headaches this will create. More traffic lights anyone?

Ummm...A 3 bedroom at 1000sq ft? You are kidding right? What? Are the bedrooms are going to be like 8'x8'? :eek: I have what I consider a very small two bedroom at 1200 sq ft. My second bedroom is only 10'x11' and I can barely squeeze in a queen bed and a night stand in there. :laugh:

I almost got in on the Shaker Hills project but my neighbor talked me out of it GOD BLESS HIM. When you carefully looked at the proposal he pointed out a few very 'optimistic' numbers. Then then real estate crash happened and the rest is history