Exeter RiverWoods’ plans for new health center draw backlash from neighbors

EXETER — RiverWoods is looking to construct a new three-story health center to provide assisted living care, skilled care, and memory care for its residents.

The continuing care retirement community went before the town’s Zoning Board Tuesday, seeking two variances for the 158,000-square-foot building along Kingston and Jolly Rand Road.

The meeting was continued until April 16 as the project faced heavy opposition from neighbors, who were concerned about the size of the project and impact it would have on the neighborhood.

Representing RiverWoods, Eric Saari of Altus Engineering said the proposed new health center would replace three existing ones in the facility’s neighborhoods, The Woods, The Ridge and The Boulders.

The proposed building, near the administration office at 7 Riverwoods Drive, would offer 126 rooms and have two courtyards with 116 parking spots. Saari said 70 of those spaces will be located in an underground garage to “minimize impact to the site and condense this thing as much as possible.”

The project needs a variance for 11 of the 116 parking spaces that are located within the 100-foot landscape buffer. Saari said although the project would only require 106 parking spaces, the design team wanted to have 116 spaces to accommodate workers and visitors to the center.

The height variance, according to Eric Harrmann of AG Architecture, is needed because they want to include a gable roof, which would add 11 feet on top of the town’s 35-foot height limit.

“The three-story structure itself all falls underneath the 35-foot range,” he added. “The 46 (feet) that we’re requesting is to accommodate the gabled roof form. From an architectural standpoint, it’s certainly appropriate… when we ask for 46 (feet), we’re not asking for a mean or average, we’re asking for the worst-case scenario on this building.”

Harrmann said the design team will revert to a flat roof design if the height variance is rejected.

Another design aspect of the project is to plant 14- to 16-foot evergreens around the building. Robbi Woodburn of Woodburn & Company Landscape Architecture said the evergreens would “soften” and “screen” the building from the road as much as possible.

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Neighbors on Kingston and Pickpocket Road air concerns

Bob Prior, a resident of Pickpocket Road, said the request to exceed the maximum height is “primarily, if not solely, decorative and not functional.”

“The existing facilities at RiverWoods, none of them are visible … this building should not be visible either,” he said. “Just because they want to make it taller doesn't mean they’re allowed to make it taller. … I think if they have to put in a flat roof, they have to put in a flat roof.”

Fred Bird of Kingston Road said he and his neighbors recently heard about the project. He said he thought it was going to be a “Band-Aid station” for nurses to help RiverWoods’ residents with smaller emergencies.

“I had no clue they’re going to be 150 people living in a three-story building across from my house,” he added. “That building will not fit into the neighborhood properly.”

Riverwoods Drive resident Glenn Theadore brought up concerns regarding noise and traffic.

“The noise is tremendous,” he said. “It’s quiet at times in the evening but emergency vehicles are constantly going by my home … my son, he can't even play in the yard at times because RiverWoods employees are speeding back and forth constantly.”

Bill Goodenough of Pickpocket Road said the project does not fit the character of the neighborhood.

“It’s mentioned seven times in the variance request that RiverWoods is concerned about ‘altering the essential character of the neighborhood,’” he said. “Do you consider a building 200 feet wide, 400 feet long, and three stories high as altering the essential character of the neighborhood?”

Attorney Sharon Sommers of DTC Lawyers, also representing RiverWoods, said the variance request is for height and buffer, not the size of the project. She said the additional 11 feet “will not change the sense of neighborhood.”

The town's Zoning Board closed the public hearing Tuesday to continue discussion on the project on April 16.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Exeter RiverWoods’ unveils plans for health center: Neighbors object