Copyright keenesentinel
The Keene Planning Board on Monday gave a local developer another six months to meet conditions of approval for a residential development on Drummer Hill. This extension is the second the city’s planning board has given Christopher Eric Farris, whom community development staff said still needs to submit architectural plans for the project. With plans to build townhouse-style condos for rent or sale, the project first came before the board for approval in 2022. The proposed development is set to include six buildings with a total of 36 housing units. The site is about 13 acres. The project has appeared as a boon to the city’s housing crisis, but some neighbors have expressed concerns about flooding, runoff and other issues due to the location on Drummer Hill. Farris did not attend or have a representative present at Monday’s meeting, but sent a letter to the board asking for the extension. According to community development staff, he sent the letter on Friday, the last day to do so. Farris could not be reached by phone Monday. Via email, he maintained the extension granted Monday was the first for the application. Planning board minutes show it is the second extension. He declined to comment further. According to Senior Planner Mari Brunner, Farris submitted part of the missing materials Friday, but not the plans. “That’s all the information that I have,” she said, in response to a board member asking why the extension was necessary. In his letter, Farris wrote that “the architectural plans will hopefully be completed by the end of the year.” He also said construction on the project now isn’t expect to begin until spring 2027. The planning board approved the extension unanimously Monday after a few minutes of discussion. “We’re all in favor of new housing. Thirty-six units is nice,” said board Chair Harold Farrington, who said Farris had been cooperative with the board about tweaks to the design of the buildings. “I think it’s only right we continue to cooperate with him.” Farris is known in the region for a much larger project to redevelop part of the old Troy Mills property, which remains stalled amid a dispute with that town’s water and sewer commission. His development of the old mill property has proven controversial, in part because residents say they haven’t been able to access complete plans for the project, which has been in the works since 2021. Troy’s selectboard approved his building permit there based on a site plan for a different project from 2006, board minutes show, and in a grant application dated July 29, 2022, Farris listed “n/a” for both engineer and architect on that project. Asked in April if he had updated the plans from 2006, Farris said the question was “absurd” and “uninformed” and that he did not need a new plan. Farris acquired about $1.5 million in grant money to develop the mill. He told The Sentinel early this year that at least $948,000 of that had been spent, but the buildings on the site remain uninhabitable. The original deadline the grant set for the property to be habitable was May 2024. The state has since extended the deadline for Farris to the end of 2025. According to Brunner, applicants for building permits in Keene can request up to three extensions. While the one the planning board gave Monday was only the second given to this application, Brunner said it’s technically the fifth granted to the project. Farris originally filed the application as a Conservation Residential Development Subdivision and got three extensions on that, Brunner said. He then filed it as a Cottage Court Development. Keene began allowing this latter type of development in May 2024. Cottage courts are groups of small houses around a shared green space. They’re intended to promote compact housing developments within existing neighborhoods. In the letter requesting this latest extension, Farris said he plans to use the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program to develop the property. The federal program gives a tax break incentive to developers building low-income housing. The delay of the start of construction is in part due to the schedule for that program, he wrote. At Monday’s meeting, planning board member Kenneth Kost asked community development staff whether there has been any activity on the site and whether the board should be concerned about how it’s being left. At a previous meeting about the project, the site having been logged early in the process raised concerns from neighbors and planning board members about potential vulnerability to runoff and erosion. Brunner told the board the site is “pretty much stable,” with vegetation growing back, which will help prevent some of those issues.
