From:	Michael Behrendt
Sent:	Monday, February 15, 2016 12:24 PM
Subject:	Mill Plaza - email from Charles Forcey

To the Planning Board,
Please see the email below from Charles Forcey.

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


From: Charles Forcey [mailto:cforcey@me.com]  
Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2016 9:40 AM 
To: Michael Behrendt 
Subject: Re: Mill Plaza - drawing from Bill Schoonmaker

Dear Michael,

As a resident of the Faculty Neighborhood since 1999, a frequent shopper and 
business patron at the plaza, and a parent of school age children who walk 
through the plaza to school, I have watched the emerging plans and discussion of 
the Mill Plaza with great interest and not a little concern.

I agree with many of the comments made to date on the original plan, especially 
those by Bill Schoonmaker below and the collected input from Chesley Drive 
residents.   From our personal perspective on Thompson Lane, the vital elements 
of a successful community plan would:

- maintain a clear, safe walking route through the path from Faculty and Chesley 
along a natural buffer and up the center of the property past the Grange and on 
to the schools.  This path is a key conduit for our children and would become an 
unsafe, building enclosed scramble in the first version of the plan showing student 
housing crowded on all sides of the Chesley inlet.
- expand and maintain an attractive and physically buffered (with drainage and 
snow removal planing) natural strip along the brook and Faculty road 
neighborhood, supporting the aforementioned through path to the central 
corridor (as shown in Bill Schoonmaker's sketch) and the downtown.
- provide adequate covered bike parking (see Peak housing for great examples on 
Mast Road) for residents and shoppers alike.
- build on the MIll Road frontage to provide a visual buffer for the parking lots and 
commercial activity to balance density toward the front of the lot and away from 
sensitive environmental and neighborhood zones.
- maintain adequate parking for the businesses in the plaza which in our case 
includes our bank, our Doctor, our gym, our pharmacy, and our grocery -- all of 
which can be reached by foot or bike and represents the rare gem of walkability 
and sustainability for the suburbs.

Thank you so much for commencing this process in a spirit of openness and 
listening to the affected community members.  We understand that this is an 
initial study and look forward to seeing the response of the developers to the 
input provided to date.  

In closing, I just want to stress again the absolute priority of ensuring the 
transparency, safety, lighting, and protection from vehicles of community 
pathways from dense, heavily student housing areas.  This is essential for the 
safety of school kids and shoppers traversing the lot from the surrounding 
community, and I believe vital to the future economic success of the development 
as well.

Sincerely,

Charlie Forcey
12 Thompson Lane
Durham, NH