Cricket Ridge Gets Approval From Planners

A second workforce housing complex was approved in Windham on June 27, as planners voted unanimously to pass the 12-unit Cricket Ridge site.

Three of those 12 single-family homes will be workforce housing, a number that was noted in a variance acquired for the project.

The town's workforce housing ordinance, adopted in March, requires 50 percent of the units to be workforce housing.

The variance was something the board struggled with, but members determined during an April hearing that the current ordinance was not on the books when the project was originally proposed in 2010.

Nancy Winn, an attorney in Westwood, Mass., told the board that she has an interest in 82 Meetinghouse Road, one of the abutting properties. Her brother, Jim Maloof, lives at the property, and has previously opposed the development.

Winn accused the board of not being neutral, bolstering the credibility of project engineer Karl Dubay while not giving the abutters a fair chance.

"We have this veil of what's going on here – it's not equal treatment to (the abutters)," Winn said. "It's not due process with all due respect."

She also called Windham's workforce housing ordinance "unconstitutional," arguing that it is "arbitrary, capricious and void for vagueness."

Planning Board Chair Margaret Crisler and Dubay both denied any favoritism from the board. Dubay argued that the planners leave no stone unturned in their process.

"There's no special treatment here," Dubay said. "When I come to this board this board is very, very difficult."

Dubay also countered many of Winn's arguments against the actual site plan.

Winn said that water runoff from the incoming development will be pushed onto the property of abutters, to which Dubay answered that runoff will be intercepted.

She also argued that the Cricket Ridge site is a unique land of rock and ledge, and it will create an ampitheater effect, causing extra noise for abutters.

Dubay argued that there is no ledge or rock at the site that needs to be removed.

"Look at the test pit logs (and) look at the topography," he said.

Francis Licata, an abutter at 83 Meetinghouse Road, asked Dubay how he could guarantee there is no ledge if he hasn't dug down deep enough.

Dubay explained to Licata that digging has been done throughout the property, and that it has been deep enough.

Dubay also said that the subdivision was going to go in no matter what, and has been contemplated since 1972.

"This would have been designed or built whether it was a workforce housing or not," he said.

Winn's brother has the smallest buffer of any abutting property, with just a 10-foot buffer between his house and one of the incoming units.