An Affront to God’s Country

I was tempted to skip this meeting. However, I’ve missed a couple in a row, and Ted Panos is holding me hostage at 8:12 this Wednesday morning. Thus, with a literal gun to my head, the agenda item that I was most interested in was the motion response relative to the Apple Orchard “project” currently “happening” at the intersection of Christian, Llewellyn, and Reservoir Streets on my beloved Christian Hill.

Long story short – for pretty much as long as I’ve been alive, there was an apple orchard on Christian Street (There was always a rumor that kids entering the property would be shot – so I’ve never actually stepped foot on the lot, despite the fact that a foul baseball at the Rez would occasionally make its way down there). The lot was maintained as such until about 2005:

[^ 2024 Wetland Report]

From roughly 2005 to fairly recently, the lot began a long process of reversion to a natural wooded area. Most importantly, the land began doing what that part of Christian Hill has always required: absorbing water.

Roughly two years ago, the parcel was sold to an entity registered as Christian Hill Homes, LLC out of Windham, New Hampshire.  This outfit had plans to subdivide the lot into 17 parcels to construct and sell relatively high-priced single-family homes. The neighborhood, as well as our local land development boards, attempted to take action to stop or mitigate this development – largely because every neighbor familiar with the lot was well acquainted with the drainage issues on that part of the hill. Like foul baseballs, anything that falls over there will gather momentum and flow down towards Duck Island. As such, the quiet wooded lot was serving a critical function.

However, in an effort to add housing stock, the State overruled local efforts and the developer was given the green light to do pretty much whatever he wanted.

To be clear, I strongly favor adding to the housing stock. There is a real and pressing need for housing, and I don’t reflexively oppose state intervention to make that happen. In many cases, it’s necessary. But increasing housing supply cannot be the only variable in the equation. It has to be balanced with environmental realities, site-specific conditions, and the lived experience of the neighborhoods absorbing that development.

Here, that balance never materialized. Rather, the developer eschewed a staged, measured process and belligerently clear-cut the entire lot.

[Actual Footage]

[Quick Aside: Doesn’t Councilor Robinson’s FB post kind of remind you of the cover of Sabbath’s 1970 self-titled masterpiece? Just me? We can address your questionable taste in music at a later date.]

[I’ll concede the Sabbath album cover has more trees]

The obvious result is that the water overflow problem is worse than ever, and the entire site is an eyesore and a reminder that humans are a plague upon the earth.

[Video of Christian Street Falls shown at March 24 Council Meeting]

Adding insult to injury, given the: (a) location, (b) lot sizes, (c) topography, and (d) current housing and economic markets, the proposed houses are not exactly selling like hotcakes. In fact, they’ve been sitting on the market for months and the preposterous prices have been falling from the 900K range with no floor in site. This should concern everyone, as the developer promised to try to reinvent the wheel by adding foliage back to the site.  I suspect he would be unlikely to do so if and when this project collapses due to the financials.

[note the lush trees and dry curbs]

So what did “we” actually accomplish here?

We removed a naturally effective environmental buffer, worsened existing drainage conditions, and replaced it with a partially built subdivision that isn’t selling. The State met its metric—units approved—but the neighborhood absorbed the cost.

That doesn’t mean the answer is to stop building. It means the answer is to build smarter and at a reasonable scale. And, to its credit, the City appears to be moving in that direction.

A tree committee is already in the works—an acknowledgment, at least in part, that vegetation, canopy, and green space are not aesthetic luxuries but functional infrastructure. Done right, that kind of effort can begin to mitigate what happened here. It won’t recreate the orchard. But it’s a step toward recognizing that development and environmental stewardship are not competing ideas—they’re interdependent ones.

Also – if they find any old-ass baseballs, I’d like them back please.