From: Michael Behrendt Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 3:50 PM Subject: PB - email from C. Tuveson To the PB and TC, For your interest, below. Michael Behrendt Director of Planning and Community Development Town of Durham 8 Newmarket Road Durham, New Hampshire 03824-2898 (603) 868-8064 (phone) mbehrendt@ci.durham.nh.us www.ci.durham.nh.us From: Carol Tuveson [] Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 3:30 PM To: Todd Selig; Michael Behrendt Subject: PB Dear Planning Board and Town Council; I cannot make either meeting this week, however I've been stewing for over a month about all that happens over and over in this town without it appearing like steps are being taken to remedy things. I don't know how many PB meetings I've missed since Peak last presented, but I see that once again Peak is on the agenda requesting more beds. The last meeting the message I heard from Peak was: “If you allow us 50+/- more beds, we'll have the money to do the landscaping”. I was amazed at the strength of their conviction that they could do this and get away with it. Then I thought about it some more and realized it was in keeping with their history with the town, as short as it has been. Julian was accurate when he said they were essentially using hostage-taking language. More than once they've made verbal agreements and then done as they pleased with no consequences so why should this be different? Then they shifted the onus of needing more beds to the students, which is just a red herring. It is not what the students want that should determine this. The students want many things. Peat miscalculated. Better they just admit it. Digging deeper, who is responsible for reading the contractual agreements and building/site plans for potential problems and insuring they will be followed? Who should look for things like the 12-15 foot wall and address them or at least bring them up in a public hearing early on while everything is in the paper stage? And where are the consequences when the agreements aren't followed? Without these, we have no teeth. Verbal agreements are meaningless, as Peak has so willingly taught us. It should not be up to the residents of Durham to stand up and ask for these to be in writing. It should not be up to us to try to discover if there are areas of a design that will be offensive to many. We are not trained to read these documents. Shifting this responsibility to us is irresponsible. The PB and Michael Berhendt have been tasked with protecting our town and us from developers like Peak and they are failing. It is time to end verbal agreements with developers and insist these agreements be in writing in the contract—preferably done by a lawyer. Developers know that their pockets are much deeper than ours, and because they are not part of this community, their goal is to keep their investors happy. Durham's goal should be to try to keep its citizens happy by protecting the town. I moved to Durham for its small town ambiance, the schools, the pool, and the surrounding community. I grew up in a small town. In fact, I grew up in Durham. The construction of 9-11 Madbury destroyed this, and Durham has been on this destructive path ever since. Where is the recognition of this being a small New England town? Where is the nod to our over 300 years of history? Why are we so hell bent on destroying open spaces, old buildings, and all that makes Durham unique? Can we not demand that new construction fits with our heritage and sense of small town? Of course we can. There are so many examples of small towns all over NH who have sold their souls for tax relief, and did they get it? No. The research shows that open land has the lightest demand on town resources, and yet the driving forces would have us build on every available acre for the money. Money does not make a town. I believe it is time to stop granting new building permits for large construction projects for a short while. So much is happening simultaneously that not enough due diligence is being given to each project. This state of affairs helps the developers but hurts the town, and the PB is not here to help the developers. And we continually overlook developers mis-steps. 9-11 overstepped its footprint...oh well. The Cottages removed the buffer of trees meant to shield it from the cemetery. Too bad, but... And now Peak. Either I have a vivid imagination that put me in the PB meeting when it was brought up that the trees Peak had agreed to leave had been bulldozed, or this conversation really happened. I remember the response was there was nothing that could be done, or something to this effect, because it wasn't in the contract. However, it was a verbal agreement, and yet we continue to let them make these “agreements” only to have Peak do as it pleases without repercussions. I was at the meeting when Parry talked about the multi-use path and how certain trees should be saved. Peak saw no problem with this, but why should they? They had no intention of doing anything but what they wanted. Again, there has to be some sort of ruling/language/whatever that demands all of these kinds of verbal agreements be put in writing and attached to the original agreements. And I would like to see fines large enough to discourage this kind of disregard for the town. Fines won't discourage developers. It will simply encourage them to honor their agreements. While some may not see and be offended by buildings like 9-11 or the buildings soaring out of the rural landscape on Mast Road (it looks like a bad prison scene at night), many more are. The kindest thing I can say about 9-11 and The Lodges is that they are tacky, do not fit with their environment, and have offended many alumni, residents, and visitors. Our Town seal depicts the history of Durham back to the days when it was a sea port. Perhaps it is time to retire it as it no longer reflects what is valued by this town's administrators, Council and Planning Board. I don't know if these things continue to happen due to negligence, indifference, incompetence, or intention. I do know that we the townspeople have every reason to expect and demand action be taken to prevent these things from happening again. Sincerely, Carol Tuveson 11 Watson Rd 1-12-15 Carol