Council forges ahead with redevelopment projects | News

“A unanimous vote like that may be a testimony to the truth that lots of work has been put into that and the collaboration has been profitable,” Mayor Charlene Lovett stated in elation instantly following the vote.

The council additionally voted unanimously in a separate decision to approve an 11-year tax aid exemption for the Peterson constructing to facilitate a developer’s undertaking to renovate the vacant former mill constructing to offer 80-90 market-rate residences.

The assembly was capped off when the council moved forward to improve town’s emergency dispatch gear whereas persevering with to discover a regional partnership with Newport or different cost-saving fashions.

Nice Road revitalization receives approval

With Wednesday evening’s vote, town council dropped at fruition a plan for Nice Road that has been mentioned within the metropolis for almost 60 years: to reroute industrial vans from the downtown to different routes.

The authorized revitalization undertaking will convert Nice Road from two-way to one-way southbound site visitors and enhance the ratio of pedestrian house on Nice Road by 50%. The proposed design consists of plans for a bicycle lane, improved lighting and signage, and expanded pedestrian walkways that may accommodate foot site visitors, outside eating, seating and paintings. The road is also closed to site visitors periodically for particular occasions, like avenue gala’s or a farmer’s market.

New bushes would supply locations of respite alongside the road, assist scale back water runoff and enhance the visible aesthetic of the road.

Business vans which have beforehand used Nice Road as a thru-way might be diverted to different routes that circumvent the downtown.

Councilors and residents in attendance voiced help for the undertaking, saying it might present a long-sought catalyst to draw consumers, vacationers and new residents to town.

“I hear feedback typically that we have to refill the downtown buildings earlier than we spend money on ourselves,” stated Councilor Erica Sweetser. “However on this chicken-or-the-egg [scenario] we all know the fitting reply this time.”

Sweetser identified that this undertaking will present the missing assets mandatory to draw new companies to these retailer fronts. The undertaking plans to extend total parking downtown by an estimated 100 extra areas by working with personal homeowners to entry their underutilized tons.

The Nice Road revitalization was a key goal within the metropolis’s 2017 Grasp Plan, which sought to make Claremont’s metropolis heart a vacation spot for buying, strolling, eating, cultural occasions and social interplay. Rerouting industrial truck site visitors would additionally considerably scale back noise disturbances and defend buildings from injury attributable to the vibrations of passing vans.

A number of circumstances factored into the timing of this undertaking. A large chunk of the $4.8 million bond will cowl the alternative of water and sewer traces that run beneath Nice Road. Metropolis Supervisor Ed Morris stated in earlier discussions of the undertaking that it makes extra fiscal sense to tie the Nice Road reconstruction to the water improve, because the metropolis will already be paying to tear open the road and repave.

Town additionally has three bonds concurrently retiring this yr, so town goals to offset the price of the revitalization bond to forestall a rise to the present tax fee.

Council approves tax aid request for Peterson constructing

The council authorized an 11-year tax aid exemption beneath New Hampshire RSA 79-E for the Peterson constructing, {a partially} renovated however nonetheless vacant former mill constructing at 29 Water Road.

Chinburg Properties, a growth firm primarily based in Newmarket, is beneath settlement to amass 29 Water St. to create a residential constructing with 80 to 90 market fee residences in Claremont’s historic mill district. Nearly all of items can be studio or one-bedroom residences, with two-bedroom residences comprising about one-fourth of the combo.

RSA 79-E is a state-created tax incentive program created in 2016 to encourage renovations or upgrades to industrial or residential properties by permitting the proprietor to proceed paying taxes on the property’s pre-renovation worth for a five- to 11-year interval.

The council’s approval implies that Chinburg would solely pay taxes on the Peterson constructing’s present assessed worth of $753,700 for the following 11 years.

On the council assembly on Aug. 26, Chinburg stated that these state-based tax applications are key elements to financing these mill renovation initiatives. Chinburg additionally plans to hunt federal historic tax credit for the Peterson constructing undertaking, which had been additionally used to fund the constructing’s renovation in 2006.

The Peterson constructing was initially renovated in 2006 as a part of the broader Monadnock Mills undertaking that used federal stimulus to repurpose the district’s shuttered historic manufacturing buildings. The undertaking included the renovation of 21 Water Road, which homes Crimson River Expertise’s headquarters and The Frequent Man. The Peterson constructing continues to be owned by Sugar Mills Redevelopment, who supposed to develop the constructing into condominiums, although the undertaking stalled.

Chinburg Properties President Eric Chinburg, who sought town council’s approval on preliminary objects Wednesday, stated he has been all in favour of creating the constructing for various years. Since 1996 Chinburg has renovated 17 former mill buildings into residential residences in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The corporate sometimes funds the initiatives via federal and state tax applications that incentivize the repurposing of previous or historic buildings to spur financial growth.

Bond to replace emergency gear strikes ahead

The Claremont Metropolis Council unanimously authorized a bond of as much as $1 million to exchange town’s previous and outdated emergency communications gear, a lot of which is as much as 20 years previous and not serviceable.

Metropolis Supervisor Ed Morris stated town continues to be in dialogue with Newport about the potential for a joint-dispatch heart, which might doubtlessly yield price financial savings for each municipalities. However the present state of Claremont’s gear is simply too nice a public security threat to delay.

“I don’t wish to kick the can ready to see if the regional dispatch system occurs or not,” Morris advised the council. “I believe we have to transfer ahead to exchange the gear wanted for our system.”

The bond won’t grow to be obtainable till January, so Claremont will proceed to discover a partnership with Newport. Morris advised the Eagle Occasions on Friday that the present conversations with Newport are nonetheless in “their infancy stage” however renew a dialogue initiated a couple of years earlier by former Claremont Metropolis Supervisor Ryan McNutt, who terminated his employment with town in 2019.

Town may even proceed looking for grant funding alternatives to imagine among the price, Morris advised the council. Town has thus far been unable to seek out obtainable funds via the federal Coronavirus Assist, Reduction, and Financial Safety (CARES) Act. The Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA) knowledgeable Claremont that funds weren’t obtainable for dispatch gear and town doesn’t anticipate a surplus from the $331,000 obtained for payroll safety.

Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase stated the vast majority of the gear upgrades contain base radios and the primary communications interface. Cell radios, reminiscent of car radios, are comparatively newer and have been properly maintained.

However the primary radios and gear are so outdated that their alternative components are not manufactured. Chase stated that town has gathered sq. components from buying used gear that different dispatch stations “throw away.”

“So I don’t wish to say the sky is falling [at the moment], however we’re behind the occasions,” Chase advised the council.

Claremont Fireplace Chief Bryan Burr stated the hearth division’s radio has two frequencies, together with one for speaking to and from the fireground. However the division not often makes use of the fireground communication frequency as a result of it wants the upgrades in order that such communications might be recorded.

Town will mix the functions for the gear bond and the $4.8 million bond for the Nice Road revitalization, which the council additionally authorized on Wednesday. The bonds will stay separate actually, however combining them into one utility saves town between $5,000 to $15,000 in extra utility charges, Morris advised the council.

Some gear purchases might hinge on how Claremont strikes ahead with its dispatch companies. Along with a potential regional dispatch, town might take into account increasing its means to contract dispatch companies to different municipalities.

Chase stated that Claremont offers some dispatch companies to Cornish, Lempster, Unity and the county sheriff’s division, although Claremont is at present at its most capability to contemplate extra communities.

Sullivan County is among the solely counties in New Hampshire that doesn’t have a regional dispatch operation, in accordance with Sullivan County Supervisor Derek Ferland.

Sullivan County tried to create a central county dispatch greater than eight years in the past, which might have served all of the townships within the county, however the initiative died from irreconcilable disputes between municipalities.

Ferland stated the communities failed to seek out settlement on the placement of the station and tips on how to apportion the funding.

The county initially sought to put the middle in Claremont, however some townships contested the proposal, wanting the middle in their very own group.

Municipalities additionally fought over tips on how to distribute the burden that may fall onto the county tax fee, Ferland stated. Whereas some price would have been apportioned in accordance with every municipality’s name fee, that mannequin alone couldn’t recoup the required income. Some bigger cities needed a better funding portion put onto the tax fee, whereas smaller cities protested shouldering extra burden.

“Our [county] place is that we’ll assist [to establish one] however the request has to return from the municipalities,” Ferland stated. “This isn’t going to be a county-level undertaking. But when the municipalities want the county’s assist ultimately we are going to help them.”