South Street 24-Lot Subdivision

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and numbers may be misheard.

What: major subdivision of a 10.7-acre vacant parcel off South Street (tax map 8814Z, lot 4) into 24 single-family lots, with about 900 feet of new city road continuing Morland Avenue and an extension of Heather Lane of about 800 feet, plus a lot line adjustment with an abutting parcel.
Where it stands: approved with conditions on October 21, 2026, with one board member opposed. Waivers were granted except one denied.
Next: the applicant must meet the precedent and subsequent conditions; the road and drainage are to be offered to the city and accepted by the City Council later. The denied manhole drop waiver means the engineer will keep working on a compliant design or return with a request.

Builder: Eric Jackson of Stabil Companies (a New Hampshire home builder, its first Concord project) said homes would be for sale, about 1,600 to 2,500 square feet with two-car garages, and that 24 lots are needed for the project to be financially feasible. The land is owned by a family company, a church and the builder; Keach is a principal of the family company.
All lots meet zoning area (12,500 square feet) and frontage (100 feet); five or six lots do not fit the rectangular usable-area rule in the subdivision regulations because of road curves and corners.
Stormwater: two filtration ponds because of the shallow seasonal high water table, with the larger pond fenced, screened with evergreens and maintained by the city under easement; underground utilities; one street light at the new intersection; sidewalk on one side to match Heather Lane.
Phase one: new road and 14 lots; phase two: Heather Lane extension and 10 lots.
Nine waivers were requested; staff supported all but two (the manhole drop, denied, and a street tree standard that staff later supported after four trees were added, at about one per 45 feet). A curve radius waiver (126 feet instead of 200) came from the fire department's preferred road layout and requires a sight-line easement.
No conditional use permit, design review or Conservation Commission review was needed. Staff and the transportation engineer found no need for a full traffic study (about one trip every 10 to 15 minutes at peak on existing streets).

Abutting Heather Lane residents: removal of the temporary hammerhead turnaround (a 2009 city easement that ends when the road is extended; staff said keeping it would create a second driveway cut), grading and fill, groundwater and runoff, the number of waivers, density, tree buffers, street lighting, a monument sign (none planned) and the street name.
A resident said the waivers cut corners and the project should lose a lot; another said the 24-lot count follows road costs and cited a 61 percent peak runoff increase to Bow Brook and a tree count of about 74 (attributed to the applicant's own report; not verified here), and raised the precedent of waivers for land owned by a family company tied to a public official.
Supporters spoke for more housing, including the landowner principal.

About 99 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-21 - Planning Board	99

2026-10-21 - Planning Board - Public hearing and approval of the subdivision with conditions, one no vote; manhole drop waiver denied, other waivers granted.