The Wolfeboro Planning Board is looking to bring some big changes to an area that lies close to Lake Wentworth.

Specifically, the board is proposing to expand commercial development along a stretch of Route 28 at the point where the road makes its nearest approach to the lake.

A zoning article now being discussed would allow commercial uses such a take-out restaurants and retail stores on both sides of Route 28 starting at the West Lake restaurant property and running to just beyond the intersection of routes 28 and 109. (You can download the zoning article here and view the map here.)

With a draft zoning article in hand, planners are now looking for input from the community. It’s a crucial opportunity for residents, business owners, and those with an interest in water quality, the health of the downtown business district, and the integrity of residential neighborhoods to provide some much-needed feedback to the board.

The panel has scheduled a public forum for Tuesday, July 16, to gather input on its draft article. Time and location have yet to be announced.

The area under consideration is currently zoned residential except for the West Lake property and the area around the Route 28/109 intersection, both of which are zoned commercial. The board has said that the new zoning proposal is aimed at eliminating some of the more objectionable commercial uses permitted in those two areas.

The board has also asserted that it is acting to counteract the “hodge-podge” of land uses along the affected stretch of Route 28..

Unfortunately, the new zoning would greatly expand the area available for commercial development and would effectively invite national franchises and chain businesses to Wolfeboro. Many of those developments could be expected to require large parking areas that create stormwater runoff and to generate a significant amount of traffic. It’s also hard to see how the addition of fast-food restaurants and even movie theaters, as included in the new zoning proposal, would reduce the “hodge-podge” of land uses that the board says it dislikes.

Also, critics of the plan have repeatedly pointed out that the commercial uses that would be permitted by the new zone appear to conflict with the town’s Master Plan, which encourages the community to retain the downtown area as Wolfeboro’s primary commercial district. Under the Planning Board’s new zoning, restaurants and chain franchises on Route 28 could compete for limited dollars with established businesses in town.

The top concerns

Several  aspects of the zoning proposal raise serious concerns..

Fast-food restaurants

The last thing this important gateway to the town needs is a gauntlet of fast-food signs. Apart from the visual clutter that these franchises would create, they would draw large numbers of automobiles from the downtown area and beyond, forcing traffic either through the narrow stretches of Route 28 in Wolfeboro Falls or along the twisting length of Trotting Track Road. Getting in and out of side streets such as Whitten Neck Road would become even more of a trial than it is, particularly in the summer and on weekends.

The town’s numerous small pizza and deli shops might expect the likes of Subway franchises to set up shop and siphon off customers. There’s a reason that the town’s Master Plan urges the maintenance of the downtown as the town’s premier business district and discourages the development of competing commercial districts along the town’s access roads.

And, since the target area for the rezoning is not served by municipal water or sewer, businesses that make use of large amounts of water, such as restaurants, might require large wells and extensive septic systems — all within a stone’s throw of the residential neighborhoods on both side of Route 28, all of which themselves depend on ground water for domestic use.

Finally, since the proposed zoning ordinance contains no restrictions on noise or lighting, it would be left to the judgment of the Planning Board whether to impose any such requirements on developers.

Retail stores

Each three-acre parcel in the new zoning district would be eligible to have a retail outlet of up to 6000 square feet — larger than most of the businesses in the downtown area. These local establishments could now look forward to competing with franchises and national chain stores offering anything from hardware to sporting goods to art and framing supplies — all of which are currently offered by one or more local merchants.

The downtown is a large part of what makes Wolfeboro attractive, with its mix of shops, restaurants, and residences. Stressing that delicate mix with a competing commercial center in town raises the specter of tipping any number of downtown merchants, particularly the smaller enterprises, out of business.

Large impervious surfaces

Both restaurants and retail outlets could be expected to need large areas of impervious asphalt for parking, which would generate runoff laden with toxic automotive fluids, sand and debris and, very likely, likely chemicals used to melt ice and snow.

Rather than including strong protections against stormwater runoff, the current proposal makes reference to site review regulations that the Planning Board uses when reviewing a development proposal. Those regulations, however, are still being developed, and it’s not clear that they will include language that would require commercial property owners to maintain any stormwater structures that are in place. (You can download the regulations here.)

At the moment, the rezoning proposal stipulates that the Planning Board would not have the option of waiving the stormwater regulations for developments in the new zone. It will be important to ensure that that requirement remains in the final form of the proposal and that those regulations are stringent enough to protect neighboring properties and the lakes from runoff.

Inadequate buffer for Cotton Valley Trail

The trail is one of the jewels of Wolfeboro’s outdoor amenities, connecting the downtown with the lakes and the rural areas out toward Route 16 and beyond. Each year, residents and visitors alike record thousands of trips by foot, bicycle, ski, and snowmobile along the trail’s largely quiet length.

Beyond Albee Beach, the path and its brook crossings are largely out of sight of Route 28, its traffic, and its activity. Under the current zoning proposal, much of that could change as the Planning Board is offering only a 50-foot buffer between the back of potential developments and the rail corridor.

At the best of times, in summer, the rear facilities of businesses, such as their loading docks, trash disposal facilities, and maintenance structures would be in plain sight. In winter, residential neighborhoods along the lake would also be exposed to all this.

 Some needed changes

So what needs to happen to the current zoning proposal to make it acceptable? Several changes are needed, some of them significant:

• Narrowing the permitted uses to low-impact, non-retail types of businesses such as professional offices, artisan studios, antique shops, bed-and-breakfasts, and, with a special exception, educational facilities. That means eliminating such jarring, high-impact uses as fast-food restaurants, and it means removing retail uses that would compete with and threaten the health of downtown businesses.
• Expanding the buffer from the Cotton Valley Trail to 100 feet. While that would not completely protect the trail from the sights and sounds of business installations and their parking lots, it would be a big improvement over the current draft’s inadequate 50-foot buffer.
• Inclusion of strong stormwater controls that cannot be sidestepped during the development approval process.

The bottom line

In some ways, the Planning Board’s proposal feels like a solution looking for a problem. The claim that this stretch of Route 28 is nothing but a “hodge-podge” represents a Town Hall view of the world: local residents, business owners, and visitors are seldom if ever heard voicing that complaint.

As for the undesirable land uses from which the Planning Board says it wants to protect the town, none has been implemented in many years.

Still, the area encompassed by the zoning proposal has shrunk since the first draft of the article first appeared. Initially, the new zone would have stretched from the New Hampshire Boat Museum to the Route 28/109 intersection. That encompassed three major tributaries to Lake Wentworth: Harvey Brook (adjacent to the boat museum), Tyler Brook (next to The 1810 House), and Fernald Brook (crossing Route 28 at 7-Eleven).

Under the revised zoning proposal, Harvey and Tyler brooks have been removed from the new zone — although nothing prevents future zoning rezoning efforts from including them again.

For that reason, and to try to settle this question of development for the foreseeable future, it’s important for everyone involved to get this rezoning effort right. Rather than simply opposing any change to the area’s zoning, the lake community may want to encourage planners to rework the current proposal so that it protects our important surface waters and residential neighborhoods and also avoids siphoning business from the restaurants and shops that are the heart of our downtown.

It will be important to get a good turnout at the July 16 forum.