PELHAM - A huge new mall in neighboring Hudson could turn one of Pelham's key arteries into "a parking lot," and town officials plan to ask the mall's developer to help pay for road improvements to ease the traffic congestion.
The development, RiverPlace, will be on the scale of the Mall of America in Minnesota, which is the nation's biggest mall, according to William Scanzani, chairman of the Pelham Planning Board.
The development is proposed for a site at Pelham's back door - Greenmeadow Golf Course on the banks of the Merrimack River in Hudson.
RiverPlace will include 2.2 million square feet of retail space, plus 150,000 square feet of office space, along with a 400-room hotel and 600 units of senior housing by the time its two phases are complete, according to documents posted on the Hudson Planning Board's Web site.
Board of Adjustment member David Hennessey predicted RiverPlace will especially cause problems at the intersection of Mammoth and Sherburne roads, which is already on the state Department of Transportation's list of the worst.
After RiverPlace is built, the traffic on Sherburne Road could become as bad as on Route 38, he said.
"Sherburne Road is going to be a parking lot," Hennessey said.
Pelham is eligible to receive a state grant to help pay for the improvements to the dangerous intersection as part of the Interstate 93 widening project because the town is in the I-93 corridor.
But the town must first come up with a 30 percent "downpayment."
Voters will be asked at the March 13 town election to approve spending $100,000 for the improvements. The town hopes to get the rest of the downpayment from the mall developer. That figure has not been determined.
The town will gain some leverage with the developer if the mall project is declared a project of regional impact, which Town Planner Jeff Gowan said he expects Hudson officials to do.
Gowan would then be able to comment on the plans and the Hudson Planning Board would formally consider his comments in its decisions.
Steve Williams, executive director of the Nashua Regional Planning Commission, said a declaration of regional impact would give the regional commission, Pelham and other border towns the same legal status as abutters.
Gowan also said he has already been in touch with Hudson officials on the potential impact of the mall.
The development, RiverPlace, will be on the scale of the Mall of America in Minnesota, which is the nation's biggest mall, according to William Scanzani, chairman of the Pelham Planning Board.
The development is proposed for a site at Pelham's back door - Greenmeadow Golf Course on the banks of the Merrimack River in Hudson.
RiverPlace will include 2.2 million square feet of retail space, plus 150,000 square feet of office space, along with a 400-room hotel and 600 units of senior housing by the time its two phases are complete, according to documents posted on the Hudson Planning Board's Web site.
Board of Adjustment member David Hennessey predicted RiverPlace will especially cause problems at the intersection of Mammoth and Sherburne roads, which is already on the state Department of Transportation's list of the worst.
After RiverPlace is built, the traffic on Sherburne Road could become as bad as on Route 38, he said.
"Sherburne Road is going to be a parking lot," Hennessey said.
Pelham is eligible to receive a state grant to help pay for the improvements to the dangerous intersection as part of the Interstate 93 widening project because the town is in the I-93 corridor.
But the town must first come up with a 30 percent "downpayment."
Voters will be asked at the March 13 town election to approve spending $100,000 for the improvements. The town hopes to get the rest of the downpayment from the mall developer. That figure has not been determined.
The town will gain some leverage with the developer if the mall project is declared a project of regional impact, which Town Planner Jeff Gowan said he expects Hudson officials to do.
Gowan would then be able to comment on the plans and the Hudson Planning Board would formally consider his comments in its decisions.
Steve Williams, executive director of the Nashua Regional Planning Commission, said a declaration of regional impact would give the regional commission, Pelham and other border towns the same legal status as abutters.
Gowan also said he has already been in touch with Hudson officials on the potential impact of the mall.
"I need to understand more the details of the plan," he said. "But I intend to make a case we should get some help from the developer with the intersection and Mammoth and Sherburne."
Mammoth and Sherburne roads are both state roads, but the intersection improvement project is not on the state's 10-Year Transportation Plan. That means the town take the initiative, Gowan said.
"We can't wait 10 or 15 years to get the roads fixed," he said.
John Cashell, Hudson's town planner, said this week the Hudson Planning Board intends to make the declaration.
RiverPlace will be the biggest thing that has ever happened to Hudson, he said.
"Nothing else comes close," Cashell said.
But Cashell said the project is still in the very preliminary review stages before the Board of Adjustment.
"Nobody knows for sure how long that will take," Cashell said.
He predicted it could take two years before the first shovel goes into the ground because so many permits are required.
The developer, W.S. Development, a part of S.R. Weiner of Chestnut Hill (Mass.), expects the whole project to require 10 to 15 years to complete, according to Nov. 22, 2005, minutes of the Hudson Planning Board.
