PLAINFIELD — A developer looking to subdivide around 140 acres of land to build 11 single-family homes in Plainfield will go before the town’s Zoning Board on Monday night.

Michael Venditto has appealed a Plainfield Planning Board decision that would reduce the proposed development on Gleason and Bean roads to eight single-family lots. The dispute centers around whether land that is part of a “wetland buffer zone” — the 50 feet of open space required between a wetland and the start of a plot of developable land — can be included in the calculation for “contiguous developable land” that the town requires for a development.

If approved, the development would be the largest in Plainfield in decades. It also comes at a time that communities throughout the Upper Valley are grappling with a housing shortage.

In November, the Planning Board ruled that the wetland buffer could not be considered part of that calculation. Venditto is appealing that decision, stating that the town’s zoning ordinance does not explicitly say that the wetland buffer zone cannot be used as part of the developable land calculation.

“The Planning Board feels strongly that the land cannot be used that way,” Town Administrator Steve Halleran said. “The applicant says the ordinance isn’t clear on that.”

Both parties agree that the wetland buffer zone cannot be built on, he added.

“The rub here in front of the Zoning Board is whether or not that area for the wetlands buffer can be used to calculate the contiguous developable land,” Halleran said.

The disagreement is centered on one of the three properties, a roughly 92-acre plot that is on Bean and Gleason roads. It is under Plainfield’s Rural Residential Zone which states that the minimum size for a building lot must be 3.5 acres and half of that land, 1.75 acres, must be contiguous, meaning all the developable land in a single plot needs to be touching. It cannot be spread out across the lot.

Barry Schuster, the town’s attorney, agreed that the zoning ordinance does not allow for the buffer zone to be included in the calculation.

“Since development is not permitted in the wetlands, or in the 50 foot buffer around the wetlands, those areas are undevelopable,” he wrote in a June 2022 letter after reviewing Venditto’s application. “This reading of the individual sections and of the Ordinance as a whole demonstrate that the 50 foot buffer is included in undevelopable land.”

Originally, Venditto had proposed building 16 single-family homes on three plots of land, his attorney Eric Maher wrote in an email. After hearing feedback from the Planning Board, as well as abutters, he decided not to build on one of the three lots and reduced the count on the others to a combined 11 subdivisions. Of the roughly 140 acres slated to become 11 lots, nearly 60 acres will be open space. If the wetland buffer zone could not be used to calculate the developable land, it would reduce the number of lots on one of the properties from six to three.

“This is a significant impact on a parcel that has ample space to accommodate the limited number of dwellings sought,” Maher wrote. “Mr. Venditto is confident with regard to his position and that the three lots will be restored after this matter is adjudicated, but is resolved to see this matter through given the significance of this impact.”

If the Zoning Board rules in favor of the Planning Board, Venditto plans to appeal the boards’ decision to the New Hampshire Housing Appeals Board.

In his appeal, Venditto “would argue that the Planning Board and (presumably at that point) the ZBA’s interpretation of the subject provision in the Zoning Ordinance was unlawful, unjust, and unreasonable,” Maher wrote.

The Zoning Board will meet at 7 p.m. at Meriden Town Hall. The meeting is also available on Zoom via plainfieldnh.org.

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.

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