'Common Sense Prevailed' with Basketball Facility's Approval

The developers behind a five-court indoor basketball and volleyball facility hope to start construction in October now that a lengthy governmental process is behind them thanks to a final approval Wednesday from the Hampton Planning Board.

The board granted approval Wednesday for a conditional special use permit and approved the site plan for the complex, which would be located at 311 Winnacunnet Road just east of the Seacoast United indoor soccer facility, after several compromises were made to find middle ground on a piece of land saturated by wetlands.

While residents have been , applicant Tom Viviano said Wednesday that the Hampton Conservation Commission and the Hampton Planning Board did "have a role" to .

Viviano said he doesn't fault them for taking the time to thoroughly evaluate how the plan could compensate for impact to the wetlands, although he said "it's a pretty good feeling" that the planning board didn't discard the merit of the facility while voting Wednesday.

"I'm glad common sense prevailed," said , a Hampton resident who will co-own the facility with Exeter's Peter Maher. "It's a benefit for the whole town... We're really looking forward to getting this going."

The special use permit — required in part because the applicant wants to fill in existing artificial wetlands and replace them with wetlands in a different location — was approved 4-1 with an abstention from one planning board member, while the site plan was approved 4-0 with one abstention.

Throughout the application process, the town worked with Viviano and Maher to find and add many to make the land use less intrusive for local ecosystems as well as increase resident safety.

Several new changes were presented and adopted Wednesday based on conservation and planning recommendations, including the paving of what was once proposed as a gravel portion of the parking lot, the shift of 11 parking spaces, and the addition of a sidewalk from Winnacunnet Road to the facility, among others.

Jay Diener, chairman of the conservation commission, said he still couldn't support the plan despite those changes because he feels not enough is being done to compensate for the impact to the site's wetlands. Diener said three other projects with compensatory wetlands mitigation — — have had 3-1, 5-1 and 22-1 compensatory-mitigation-to-wetlands-impact size ratios, while the basketball facility only has a 2-1 ratio.

"There is a precedent for significant wetlands mitigation where wetlands are being filled," said Diener. "We’re concerned that in this project if we accept a much smaller ratio of mitigation that that’s going to set a different type of precedent and that it's going to set a much more difficult precedent for us and for you in the future."

After hearing several residents support and several others oppose Diener's views, the planning board ruled that approving the basketball facility wouldn't set a precedent because the town's ordinances don't specify a minimum compensatory amount. Also, the board ruled the companies involved in Diener's examples performed significant mitigation on their property because the area of land was unusable and because it greatly benefitted each company to offer that land.

"I don’t know that in fact these organizations did what they did generously," said member Tracy Emerick. "We don’t have any stipulated mitigation. I don’t want to go down the road that, 'We’ve always done it this way.'

"I think the project is for the betterment of the town. A greatest good for the greatest number."

Viviano said Wednesday's compromises like the "expensive" pavement change — highlighted in the mustard yellow, pill-shaped structures in the attached pictures — do significantly add to the cost of the facility, although he said they shouldn't detract from other portions of the plan, which he said should still come "within budget."

Viviano said the building will "come up quick" because the most time-consuming portion of the construction is site development. He said he hopes to begin that work in October and have the facility open and operational in February.

Additional details about the construction schedule, artistic renderings of the building and specifics about the state-of-the-art facility will be released in the upcoming weeks, according to Viviano.