SEABROOK — An agreement being drawn up could not only end Seabrook's Supreme Court lawsuit against an Ohio developer's 500,000-square-foot shopping center, but it could also result in a wider roadway along Route 1 and a five-lane Route 107 bridge over Interstate 95.
Seabrook officials have for months refused to back down on demands for wider roadways before Developer Diversified Realty is allowed to build its shopping center at the busy Route 1/107 intersection. At stake in the town's case before the Supreme Court is the authority of all New Hampshire communities to approve or reject developments based on the traffic they bring to local roads, even if roads are owned by the state, like Routes 1 and 107.
Also at stake in Seabrook's Supreme Court challenge is the pre-emptive authority of the state Department of Transportation to supersede local planning board decisions if DOT approves a project proposed for roads it controls, even if the local planning boards reject them.
Yesterday, Selectman Bob Moore said his latest trip to Concord to negotiate with DDR and DOT was rewarding and could end up putting an end to Seabrook's court case, while giving Seabrook the roadways it needs to accommodate the traffic along its popular retail shopping mecca on Route 1.
"DOT has finally stepped up to the plate," Moore said yesterday.
Moore said the agreement lawyers are writing would produce a five-lane bridge on Route 107 that stretches over I-95. The current two-lane bridge is often stalled with traffic as thousands of drivers an hour travel over it to access I-95, north and south.
Further, the agreement would widen the two-lane bottleneck on Route 1 south, from its intersection with Route 107 all the way up the Lowe's shopping center entrance. Much of the rest of Route 1 from that point is already five lanes, having been widened by developers as part of the approval conditions when large retail stores like Wal-Mart, Lowe's and Home Depot came to Seabrook.
The money for the project would come from DOT, DDR and $800,000 Seabrook was given by the Kohl's shopping center developer for just such a project. Another $275,000 may be needed, and would come from road mitigation fees that could be assessed to other developers who would bring traffic to the intersection.
"This (agreement) could be a solution to this without any more money from the town," Moore said.
Although for three years DDR officials refused to widen Route 1 as the Planning Board required, Moore said the company has agreed to kick in a lot of money for the project.
Moore said the time frame involved — whether the widening must be completed before DDR breaks ground — will be within the memorandum of agreement being hammered out now.
Once the agreement is finalized, it will go before the Planning Board for action, Moore said, adding he hoped the board would approve the negotiated settlement, which would terminate the need for the Supreme Court challenge.
Seabrook's Planning Board unanimously rejected DDR's shopping center in July 2009 over a dispute over traffic impacts. According to Planning Board members, traffic studies had shown the shopping center would bring between 1,700 to 2,200 new car trips per hour to an already bustling commercial strip, which is already heavily traveled and clogged on weekends.
Many residents, local businesses, safety officials and every Planning Board member felt the new shopping center would create unsafe road conditions if it were built without widening the bridge and Route 1.
DDR appealed the Planning Board's rejection to Rockingham County Superior Court, and in fall of 2009, Justice Kenneth McHugh reversed the Planning Board's ruling. McHugh said since DOT gave DDR permission to build the mall off state-owned Route 1, DOT's decision pre-empted, or overruled, the town's ability to turn down the project for traffic reasons.
Refusing to acknowledge that the local planning boards lack authority over local road systems and site plan approvals, Seabrook took the issue to New Hampshire's Supreme Court.
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