Concord to add 150 acres of land for conservation and housing

By the end of this year, the City of Concord will take ownership of about 150 acres of land near the former Lincoln Financial office building complex following a property deal with local developer Steve Duprey.

With plans to sell both office buildings at the campus to the tax-exempt State of New Hampshire, Duprey said he wanted to transfer the land, running behind Rumford and Penacook streets, to the city in the hopes that it could be developed and bring back some lost tax revenue. Duprey sees the area as best suited to a housing project for another developer – he’s said he’s not looking to dive into a residential project of that size.

While a neighbor argued that the city could push for a better deal, one where more of the land is available for housing development, city leaders pushed forward under an end-of-year deadline imposed by Duprey. He’s eager to close the sale by the end of December for tax purposes, and noted that another buyer, namely the state, was interested.

“Capturing whatever of this land that we can from potentially being taken off our tax rolls is absolutely essential for the City of Concord at this time,” citywide Councilor Judith Kurtz said.

Councilor Stacey Brown took an opposite view. While both the land and Duprey’s current home are in her ward, she questioned the now-or-never nature of the offer.

“I don’t like that we get this immediate, this deadline,” Brown said. “I don’t think it’s something we need to add onto our plate…let a developer take it.”

The proposal includes a requirement that around 135 acres of the land be set aside for conservation, preserving a small network of hiking and biking trails on a hillside within the expanse. It is a large conservation donation to the city, and Duprey will get the naming rights.

The city also gets control of 18 developable acres and must make its best effort to find a buyer who will return it to the tax rolls within five years.

For most councilors, protecting more taxable land from going to the state was too important to risk, and getting a chance – optimal or not – for some say over a new development was a good enough deal.

The city will put $370,000 of reserve funds toward acquiring the acreage. The vast majority of this is a kind of reimbursement to Duprey for property taxes accrued on the land after delays in negotiations with both the state and city over the last two years.

Duprey also carved out a ten-acre property set back from Little Pond Road that he is considering building a personal home on – he currently lives off a cul-de-sac just up the street. Another half-acre housing plot was carved out that he intends to sell.

“It is worthwhile to note that, while this donation will give me a charitable deduction against federal tax liability, that is not the primary motivating force behind this transaction,” Duprey wrote in a letter to the council. “I am doing this because I love Concord and appreciate what a great community this has been to live and raise kids in, and the community has been incredibly supportive of my various businesses. I am grateful for that half-century of support and encouragement, and this is a small way of saying thank you.”

Tony Schinella, a longtime Little Pond Road resident, made a lengthy presentation to the council, arguing that a large swath of land set aside for conservation was in reality very suitable for development. If the council could get Duprey to agree to put it in play, he said, the city stood to get a more profitable sale, more housing supply, and more value added to the tax base in the end.

The pitch intrigued councilors, but leaders said time had run out. A new land layout couldn’t be negotiated and permitted by year-end, and they worried Duprey would take his offer off the table in that case.

“I think that we don’t really have a lot of wiggle room,” said Brent Todd, who represents Ward One and serves on the planning board. He said the idea might have gotten more traction if raised during those permitting meetings, where Duprey was present.

Duprey did not attend the meeting to give them more freedom to deliberate, he said in his letter.

Ward Three councilor Jennifer Kretovic noted the Dec. 31 deadline wasn’t an arbitrary one.

“It’s the singular day of the year where there is no tomorrow when it comes to taxes,” she said.

Kretovic and other councilors found it unlikely that Duprey would be flexible on it. At the same time, both she and Todd noted, the council could try to go back to Duprey after approving the current plan to try and re-evaluate the amount placed in conservation.

City Manager Tom Aspell said that the proposal laid out by Duprey was “take it or leave it.”

“You can’t pick and choose, as far as I know,” Aspell said.

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