Planning Board deadlocks on waiver for proposed 5‑lot Mirror Lake Road subdivision; hearing continued

The Planning Board continued a public hearing on a proposed five‑lot subdivision of a 6.78‑acre parcel on Mirror Lake Road owned by Puffin Wells, LLC, and voted 3‑3 on a motion to grant a waiver for a third shared driveway, causing the motion to fail and leaving the application unresolved.

The developer’s engineer, Joe Fesenola of Hancock Associates, told the board the application now includes a four‑sheet plan set and stormwater calculations sized to meet New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services requirements up to the 50‑year storm. Fesenola said the plans show stone‑trench drainage along driveways to attenuate runoff and that Harbor Brook lies about 250 feet from the proposed work, so shoreland protections listed by DES do not apply to the parcels as drawn. He also said state approval from DES is pending and that his office has been exchanging plan revisions with Noah Buckner of DES.

Why it matters: board members said the waiver vote involves both public‑safety judgments and the planning board’s long‑term standard for waivers. Several members warned that approving a waiver without a high bar could set precedent for future subdivisions and reduce enforceable standards for access, emergency response and road maintenance.

Board discussion and engineering details

Fesenola summarized engineering changes made since the previous hearing: stormwater calculations added to the plan, revised driveway layout and responses to fire‑department and road‑agent comments. He described the drainage approach to the board: "the 50 year storm is a storm that occurs statistically once every 50 years. So it's a fairly large rainfall event," and said the stone trenches are sized to compensate for added impervious surface so post‑development runoff would…