NEWS

Dover apartments project approved despite objections

Jeff McMenemy
A 12-unit apartment building with offices and a restaurant on the ground floor is proposed for Preble Street in Dover.

DOVER – The city Planning Board has reapproved the site plan for a four-story mixed-use building on Preble Street with a total of 12 apartment units.

The board approved the site plan after residents raised concerns about the project’s size, massing and how it would impact traffic in the neighborhood.

The site plan was approved in an 8-1 vote, including a number of staff-recommended conditions, such as developers must provide a parking management plan for the site.

Board member Dennis Ciotti, who is also a city councilor, voted against approving the site plan.

The Planning Board initially approved the project in April 2019 but “the plan expired unsigned due to unforeseen issues encountered by the applicant,” according to a planning staff memo.

The developers, Amer Fakhoury and Micheline Elias, asked the board for the reapproval.

The project as proposed calls for a total of 12 apartments on the upper three floors, along with 966 square feet of office space and 845 square feet of restaurant space on the first floor, according to the memo.

The site plan also includes a driveway with 11 parking spaces, according to the Planning Department.

If approved, the mixed-use building will be located behind the Quick to Go store on Central Avenue. Preble Street is located off Central Avenue near downtown.

Treble Street resident George Stergiou said the project came as “quite a surprise to me. ... It’s a bit of a shock to say the least,” he said about the project.

He told the board there are only five houses on Preble Street, and four of them are single-family homes.

“The simple massing of this building is beyond the scope of many things we consider to be reasonable,” Stergiou said.

Preble Street resident Jenn McCarthy said people living in the neighborhood have had “a lot of discussion about this, the traffic, the parking and the size of the building is a concern for us as well.”

Robert Stowell of Tritech Engineering Corporation, which works for the developers, acknowledged, “I think how the building blends in with the neighborhood is fairly difficult.”

“(The) redevelopment of a lot of this size, which are few and far between downtown, is going to generate a bundling of this size under the zoning,” he said. “I think it’s a very attractive building. I think it was praised when it was brought through before on the look of it.”

He added that the project “will be a major upgrade to the area.”

A 12-unit apartment building with offices and a restaurant on the ground floor is proposed for this area on Preble Street in Dover.