Alton planning board hears design review for two-building self-storage on Route 11 amid neighbor drainage, screening concerns

Alton — The Alton Planning Board on Jan. 20 reviewed a design proposal for a two-building self-storage facility on Route 11 and Rand Hill Road, where engineers said proposed drainage improvements would control post-development flows and retain on-site stormwater.

Eric Kullen of Jones and Beach Engineers, the applicant’s agent, told the board the project would place two storage buildings keyed into the slope — one about 11,700 square feet and the other about 9,300 square feet — with an access drive to Route 11 and a gated emergency egress to Rand Hill Road. Kullen said the design includes two on-site bioretention ponds, a 24-inch pipe network in places, an oil-water separator for limited washing activities, an on-site well with the leach field located outside the aquifer protection zone and dark-sky-compliant exterior lighting. He estimated daily customer traffic would be “very low” — a couple of customers per day with seasonal peaks — and said the operation would employ about two part-time staff.

The plan drew extensive public comment from nearby residents focused on tree clearing, visibility of the buildings from Rand Hill and Boat Cove, and potential effects on private wells. Vladimir Serbeck, who identified himself as a Rand Hill Road resident, said past clearing left properties bare and urged the applicant to provide robust screening, saying the lack of trees had reduced his property’s curb appeal. “You gotta do better than that,” Serbeck said, calling for multiple rows of evergreens between the buildings and nearby homes.

Brian Capel, an abutter in Bow Cove, asked whether the project’s stormwater could affect well water and urged careful review of runoff paths. Mike Cronin — who said heavier runoff began appearing after adjacent development years ago and described repeatedly repaired, overflowing culverts — told the board he supported fixes that would stop water damaging neighboring property but warned the town against repeating prior approvals without enforcement of drainage measures.

Board members pressed the applicant on landscaping and the rural-zone requirement that 50% of designated lots remain wooded or landscaped. Kullen said the applicant will use remaining wooded tracts across the three lots for the percentage credit and is willing to expand screening between Rand Hill Road and the buildings. He also told the board the retaining walls will require a structural engineer’s designs and that the team will file for an NH DOT driveway permit and a wetlands permit as required.

Because the meeting was a design review, the board did not vote on the application. The board directed the applicant to supply a cut/fill analysis, a final landscape plan that increases buffers and screening, and the drainage analysis for independent review by Pinebond (town peer reviewer) and the Conservation Commission as part of the wetlands permit process. The applicant said he would provide truck-turning templates to the fire department and that proposed buildings are under 12,000 square feet so direct fire suppression was not anticipated.

Next steps: the applicant will revise plans to address drainage sizing, retaining-wall drainage details and a more extensive landscape buffer, then return with a complete application for formal review and any necessary permits.