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Greenland board continues lot-line adjustment after debate over workforce-housing waiver
Summary
The planning board accepted as complete a lot-line adjustment and conditional-use application for 108 Great Bay Road and continued the hearing after heated discussion over a requested waiver exempting a proposed second backlot from the town's workforce-housing requirement; the board scheduled a site walk for July 14 and will reconvene July 17.
The Greenland Board of Selectmen's planning board on Tuesday accepted as complete an application to adjust lot lines at 108 Great Bay Road and to subdivide the parcel to create a second backlot, then continued the matter after substantial debate over a requested waiver of the town's workforce-housing requirement.
The application, presented by Paige Libby of Jones Beach Engineers on behalf of the property owners, would add land from a roughly 70-acre parent parcel into Lot 2D and then subdivide that enlarged parcel into two backlots. Libby told the board the applicant also seeks waivers to avoid surveying the entire 70 acres, to reduce minimum frontage and lot-area requirements for a backlot, and to exempt the second backlot from the ordinance's workforce-housing mandate.
The waiver request centered on the workforce-housing condition the planning board added to its subdivision regulations in 2024. Kent Phoenix, introduced to the board by the applicant's engineer, said the second backlot is constrained by wetlands and topography and argued the waiver meets the planning board's standards for an exception. Phoenix cited a planner's memo estimating a typical home-and-lot value at roughly $431,000 and said that figure, combined with local construction costs and the parcel's wetland buffers, makes the workforce restriction infeasible for this site.
Property owner Debbie Beck described the parcel's history and said the proposed adjustment is a practical fix for a lot that was left isolated by an earlier subdivision. "There's a beautiful lot there," Beck said, adding that she had discussed the plan with abutters and believes the change would avoid new stream crossings and long private driveways.
Board members raised two recurring concerns: whether forcing a workforce designation on a single or pair of backlots makes construction economically impracticable, and whether granting a waiver would set a precedent. Several members said current building costs and the small scale of the proposal mean the workforce restriction could prevent any development; others warned that waiving the requirement now could encourage similar requests from other property owners.
After public questions clarified that the applicant could still develop the parcel as a single lot if the waiver were denied, a board member moved to continue the application to the board's July 17 meeting and to conduct a site walk on July 14 at 5:00 p.m. The motion passed without opposition. The board also asked the applicant to submit a simple sketch showing how the parcel could be subdivided without the workforce-housing waiver for board review before the continued hearing.
The planning board did not make a final decision on the workforce-housing waiver at Tuesday's meeting; the matter will return to the agenda after the site visit and receipt of the additional materials.
