From:	Michael Behrendt
Sent:	Wednesday, December 14, 2016 12:09 PM
Subject:	Mill Plaza - comment from John Parry

To the Planning Board (and applicant),
For your interest, below.

Michael Behrendt
Durham Town Planner
Town of Durham
8 Newmarket Road
Durham, NH  03824
(603) 868-8064
www.ci.durham.nh.us


From: John Parry []  
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2016 6:10 AM 
To: Michael Behrendt 
Cc: Beth Olshansky; Diana Carroll; external forward for rsullivan 
Subject: Comment on Mill Plaza Redevelopment Proposal

Dear Planning Board:

I wanted to pass on brief comment regarding the Mill Plaza Design. 

1. The small wooded area that is behind the current buildings provides 
environmental benefits and a visual buffer for the buildings. It appears much of 
this will be removed in the proposal. As we have seen in past development, 
existing vegetation is often over-looked in the pre-planning, and then the public is 
surprised by the loss of that buffer after construction. I think more of this small 
forest needs to be retained as a visual buffer.  Having some conceptual drawings of 
what the buildings will look like (with and without the buffer) would be useful.

2. There needs to be more trees (at least 30% more) planted within the parking 
area. The proposed trees should be a species that reach a mature height of over 30 - 
45 feet. The underground tree boxes should be designed to provide adequate soil 
volume and drainage, to support health tree growth. I can provide design examples 
for this.

3. A vegetated buffer area along College Brook needs to be increased in width to 
protect the setback area and additional tree/shrub planting and management needs 
to be planned there.

Thank you for your consideration.

John Parry
5 Denbow Rd.