Author Archives: Jack Falvey

We the People Have a Right to Know the Peoples Business

April 9, 2012

Et al:

On March 29th Woodmont was to have a special Planning Board meeting. We were notified that the applicant requested a continuance. It was granted and the meeting adjourned instantly with no comments accepted. We now know why.

The HSH Review of Woodmont was available in print.

It is almost a mirror image of many of the questions citizens submitted to the Planning Board a year ago! It is in more technical terms, but it notes that Woodmont is asking for rezoning based upon concepts and slides of Portsmouth with few details of how Londonderry will be laid out or its impact and infrastructure requirements.

The details of what has been left out are alarming. There are eleven single spaced pages of what Woodmont is not saying.

These are the people that want to build a high density mixed use subdivision in our town and bring in residents of 1300 dwellings and upwards of 2500 cars plus additional daily business automobile traffic?

They would like to transform Londonderry.

They would like the Planning Board to approve their application for that transformation. It seems there are a few details they thought it was not necessary to share. 11 pages of them! Now the applicant is meeting with HSH to answer the questions that have been on the table for a year.

This is being done in private meetings.

Perhaps the Planning Board could ask HSH who is contracted by the town to come to a public meeting and tell the residents what they found and explain to all of us what is going on.

We the people have a right to know the peoples business.

It would be a good idea if the Planning Board and the Town Council read all eleven pages attached to see the magnitude of the mess we have before us.

Regards,
Jack

“Jack Falvey Et al:” provides a hometown analysis of Woodmont Commons. Since attending the design charrette offered by the developers of the project Jack has been asking questions, you too have been asking questions, many to Jack himself. He has provided thoughtful analysis from his point of view and shared it back to the questioner and a growing list of Londonderry residents wanting of more information.

As they become available we will provide these questions to our readers and the search engines. We hope to provide a broader view of the project through the eyes of someone that came to town in the 1960′s. Jack raised a family here, volunteered in local government and founded his company “Making the Numbers” after a career at Gillette. As a motivational speaker and a prolific writer with major media outlets his views on the project may take you by surprise!

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Just Say No to Every Whim and Demand

February 27, 2012

Considering we are in the courtship period before the PB must consider the rezoning request, it is difficult to fathom what message the applicant is sending.

Hi Jack,

I was totally amazed, but not surprised, about Pillsbury Realty LLC “playing games”, to paraphrase Mary Wing Soares, in the recent 2/16/12 edition of the Londonderry Times article, regarding sending a significently smaller check that was required for the third party consultant. As our email group has been trying to point out for months, this was, as they say in the world of movies, just a “preview of coming attractions” over the next 10-20 years if our Town decides to do business with the applicant. Londonderry, unlike a lot of other towns around us with difficult decisions, still has the option to “just say no” to every whim and demand being put forth by the applicant, and taking more control. The comments from the Planning Board Members in the article were right on point, and my hope is they are starting to see what kind of nightmare this has the potential to become for Londonderry. My hope is that everyone in Town will be shining a bright light on this situation until this matter gets resolved, for the betterment of Londonderry’s future!

“Jack Falvey Et al:” provides a hometown analysis of Woodmont Commons. Since attending the design charrette offered by the developers of the project Jack has been asking questions, you too have been asking questions, many to Jack himself. He has provided thoughtful analysis from his point of view and shared it back to the questioner and a growing list of Londonderry residents wanting of more information.

As they become available we will provide these questions to our readers and the search engines. We hope to provide a broader view of the project through the eyes of someone that came to town in the 1960′s. Jack raised a family here, volunteered in local government and founded his company “Making the Numbers” after a career at Gillette. As a motivational speaker and a prolific writer with major media outlets his views on the project may take you by surprise!

To read more comments by Jack’s followers, please click Read More.

Read More »

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Questions Unanswered as Clearing Begins near Hovey Road

February 13, 2012

We have been repeatedly told that it is the wrong time to ask for details.
Perhaps that detail is wrong!

Jack good morning, tree harvesting has begun on the property formerly owned by Harold Estrey (Estrey Lumber Company); on Hovey Rd. This property approximately 45 Acres adjacent to the former Woodmont Orchard, Hovey cemetery; also boarders Trolley Car Lane. Neighborhood concerns are Traffic, zoning and wetlands with respect to building; not to mention projected (planned) type of housing. Single family, low income or rental; who knows! We are on the bottom of this land development and as I stated earlier, wetlands are adjacent and parallel to Trolley Car Lane. One question comes to mind, City sewer verses leaching fields. Currently there is a axillary sewer pumping station on Trolley Car Lane designed to handle volume over flow from Manchester NH. Will they tap into this? If so, will we be offered the same?

New construction with leaching fields will effect our artesian wells. Trolley Car Lane is a dead end street, one ingress/egress, all construction will have an negative impact on property values and obviously an undesirable effect on quality of life. No one has discussed this phase of construction with us; this property is a separate purchase from former Woodmont Orchards and I’m sure is in the scheme to change apples to roof tops or as I currently feel Cider to cesspools.

“Jack Falvey Et al:” provides a hometown analysis of Woodmont Commons. Since attending the design charrette offered by the developers of the project Jack has been asking questions, you too have been asking questions, many to Jack himself. He has provided thoughtful analysis from his point of view and shared it back to the questioner and a growing list of Londonderry residents wanting of more information.

As they become available we will provide these questions to our readers and the search engines. We hope to provide a broader view of the project through the eyes of someone that came to town in the 1960′s. Jack raised a family here, volunteered in local government and founded his company “Making the Numbers” after a career at Gillette. As a motivational speaker and a prolific writer with major media outlets his views on the project may take you by surprise!

To read comments by Jack’s followers, please click Read More.

Read More »

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Take a Walk on Kitt Lane

February 6, 2012

Every member of the Town Council should take a walk on Kitt Street. It is the Londonderry that theoretical rulings will kill.

Spring Road, both in fact and as a dotted line on the map must be walked to be appreciated.

When some one buys land in Londonderry, they are not buying the right to build whatever they want. Our town government must administer our laws to protect the rights and investments of those who came before. No one should be forced to move out because of the “rights” of those buying in.

Everyone accepts change as a way of life. Evolution is preferred over revolution.

This morning a group of residents walked a neighborhood. We saw first hand what a real walking neighborhood is like. Our town is full of them. There were no little paths and sidewalks with tiny curling designer streets. There was little traffic on wide streets with homes set back and separated by space.

This open space is the real open space of our town.

Voting against open space in favor of “Open spaces” is not what residents want.

Each one acre lot in Londonderry is a vote for a one acre lot.

The blue line in the image indicates an approximate location of Kitt Lane, while the red line indicates the approximate location of Spring Road. The orchards shown are part of Woodmont Commons and Interstate 93 can be seen in the upper left portion of the image.

Do we all have to stand in line half the night to go on Television to explain to people where we live and why we live here?

If those behind the podium would rise from their posteriors and come out and walk on Kitt Street before voting to destroy it, and its way of life, we would all be better served and better off.

Can a motion be made for a series of walking meetings on Saturday mornings for our town officials, appointed, elected and hired, to meet in daylight with the working people of the town they serve, on the streets where they live?

I’ve now been on several of these walks. Several members of the town staff have come along. They have to come back out again because when they went back into their town offices they went back into their world once again.

Our world is real and should not be destroyed out of hand at the hands of pit bull attorneys serving land speculators seeking quick profits from zoning changes.

Before we change the rules, those considering doing so must walk the streets where the rules have made the streets into very livable neighborhoods. They must go out and talk to those who live there.

Residents should not be required to go to Town Hall in the middle of the night  to defend themselves.

“Jack Falvey Et al:” provides a hometown analysis of Woodmont Commons. Since attending the design charrette offered by the developers of the project Jack has been asking questions, you too have been asking questions, many to Jack himself. He has provided thoughtful analysis from his point of view and shared it back to the questioner and a growing list of Londonderry residents wanting of more information.

As they become available we will provide these questions to our readers and the search engines. We hope to provide a broader view of the project through the eyes of someone that came to town in the 1960′s. Jack raised a family here, volunteered in local government and founded his company “Making the Numbers” after a career at Gillette. As a motivational speaker and a prolific writer with major media outlets his views on the project may take you by surprise!

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Preparing for the Big One

January 30, 2012

Et al:
This looks likes the BIG ONE.
All hands on deck! (In red if possible!)
I have a business engagement on Monday and will be late to the party. See if you can keep it going past 8:00 p.m.!
Regards,
Jack

Town of Londonderry Planning Board
AGENDA
January 30, 2012
Special Meeting

I. Call To Order

II. Administrative Board Work

A. Non-Public Session per RSA 91-A:2(b) Consultation with Legal Counsel

B. Woodmont Commons PUD Review Services – Sub-Committee recommendation to the Planning Board for the 3rd Party Review Consultant Selection and Price Proposal Opening [Tabled from the January 19, 2012 Special Planning Board Meeting to a future date.]

III. New Plans

A. Pillsbury Realty Development, LLC, Map 10, Lots 15, 23, 29C-2A, 29C-2B, 41, 41-1, 41-2, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 52, 54-1, 58, 59, and 62 – Application Acceptance and Public hearing for formal review of the Woodmont Commons Planned Unit Development (PUD) Master Plan [Tabled from the December 14, 2011 Planning Board Meeting.]

IV. Other Business

V. Adjournment

“Jack Falvey Et al:” provides a hometown analysis of Woodmont Commons. Since attending the design charrette offered by the developers of the project Jack has been asking questions, you too have been asking questions, many to Jack himself. He has provided thoughtful analysis from his point of view and shared it back to the questioner and a growing list of Londonderry residents wanting of more information.

As they become available we will provide these questions to our readers and the search engines. We hope to provide a broader view of the project through the eyes of someone that came to town in the 1960′s. Jack raised a family here, volunteered in local government and founded his company “Making the Numbers” after a career at Gillette. As a motivational speaker and a prolific writer with major media outlets his views on the project may take you by surprise!

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Signatures Collected on Town Common

January 3, 2012

Ray Adams recruited, and then brought his A Team to the town Green and the Library for seven hours of wintery mix on Saturday December 31st. 2011.

Laura Aronson, Matt and Marcela Hogan, Kieth Mac, Linda Sharpe, Ray and I all brought our A game, and we seven greeted and met with over a hundred residents who signed our Woodmont Manifesto and stayed to discuss how best to shape this development for the benefit of the town and not just the developer. (Everyone ate rum cake and brownies from a plentiful supply. Bless Ray’s quartermaster corp.)

It was pointed out that when Rockingham Mall went into Salem to our south, bringing less traffic to that town than Woodmont will bring to ours, the developer paid Salem $22 million for road improvements around the site!  We have not addressed that issue, as our developer wants his master plan and new zoning approved first! Is there something wrong with that picture?

Although town staff and town officials have had multiple meetings with the developer both at his facility and at town hall, none were present either at the Library or the Town Green on Saturday to hear what the citizens had to say. (Several of our State Legislators came, discussed and signed the Woodmont Manifesto.) Our press representatives came out in the cold and wet and reported accurately on what they saw and heard as always.

91 signed up on the Town Green
46 signed up at the Library
2 signed up at the Millennium Mile (A lot of people there from Manchester, Derry and New Jersey!  The Ron Paul people wanted to sign up, but I did not accept their help!)
6 were as  a result of a neighborhood door to door effort on Devonshire Lane.

TOTAL: 144 as of this morning 1/2/11

We expect many more over the next few days as mail in returns come in and other neighborhood door to door efforts continue.

There was not a single person coming to either the Library or to the Town Green that expressed support for changing our zoning before all the issues were on the table and satisfactorily resolved in public.

Road improvements in the range done for Salem NH are surely worth talking about before any Master Plan is accepted.

We asked the developer to divide up his project into approval phases much as he will divide it up into construction phases. He refused, and now wants all approvals at once.

I’m sure we could have shaped a phase one proposal long since, and seen it begin construction this spring or it might even have been under construction now if the developer didn’t decide to hold everything up by his all or nothing strategy.

Everyone accepts the fact that the land has been sold and a project is going to be built. We all would like to work with the developer to see that something that fits in Londonderry results and that the infrastructure required be provided by the developer and not be charged to the taxpayers. $22 million in road improvements were not paid for by the citizens of Salem.

Roads are only one issue not covered after fifteen plus months of charades, non public meetings and stonewall presentations. We deserve better. Those exercising their civic rights and duties by signing the Woodmont Manifesto believe our salaried, appointed and elected officials and our developer can do better.

“Jack Falvey Et al:” provides a hometown analysis of Woodmont Commons. Since attending the design charrette offered by the developers of the project Jack has been asking questions, you too have been asking questions, many to Jack himself. He has provided thoughtful analysis from his point of view and shared it back to the questioner and a growing list of Londonderry residents wanting of more information.

As they become available we will provide these questions to our readers and the search engines. We hope to provide a broader view of the project through the eyes of someone that came to town in the 1960′s. Jack raised a family here, volunteered in local government and founded his company “Making the Numbers” after a career at Gillette. As a motivational speaker and a prolific writer with major media outlets his views on the project may take you by surprise!

To read comments from some of Jack’s “followers” click Read More.

Read More »

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