By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

The planning board is debating whether Auburn should consider grid or cluster subdivisions for future town housing developments, as well as discussing how to better use clusters for their intended purpose.

In a cluster development, a specific section of the development is designated for housing, while the remaining land is used for open space, or common land, which is owned by the subdivision.

Auburn Conservation Commission and planning board members said the idea for cluster developments in Auburn is to preserve open space.

“If you have a 400-acre cluster development, 135 acres may be preserved as open space,” said Charles Stoney Worster, the chairman of the planning board. “It makes it look like a farm and preserves the rural character of town."

In a typical grid subdivision, houses are boxed into squarelike areas, often with criss crossing streets that have minimal curves. In Auburn, any new home that's not part of a cluster development, must be built on at least two acres if it's in a residential zone, and three acres if it's in a rural zone.

At the board's Aug. 31 meeting, the board began discussions as to whether the town would benefit more from the creation grids or clusters, in terms of future developments, as well as how to better use clusters to preserve open space.

"The big concern is that cluster development has not been used the way it was designed to be used," said Duffy Smiley, of the conservation commission. "The way it has been used allows developers to get more houses in a smaller area. It is being used as sprawl, not open space. Though it is being preserved, it is not being conserved."

In the past, cluster developments have been met with mixed reviews by New Hampshire communities, according to the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission's Web site. While some communities have complained open space has not been properly protected, others said protected land was of "marginal quality."

Worster said a continuing issue of discussion has been the definition of usable open space.

"People say, 'You gave us open space, but you only gave us a pond and a swamp,'" he said.

In the past, slopes, wetlands and trees have been considered open space in cluster developments, he said.

Although cluster developments provide open space and grids do not, Worster said the town should not necessarily choose one or the other for future developments.

"If the whole idea is to preserve open space and the rural character of the town, should we abandon two and three-acre grid zoning?" he said. "The answer is 'no'- The answer is to have cluster zoning as an available tool."

Worster said discussion about the two types of developments will likely increase once the expansion of Route I-93, from Massachusetts to Manchester, takes place.

However, he said Auburn saw significant growth in the 1980s, so growth from the I-93 expansion will likely not take the town by surprise.

"We, as a town, have gone through spurts of growth before," he said. "This is not the first time we will have growing pains."

He also said he does not foresee Auburn losing its rural character because of future developments.

"The overall impression of the town when you drive through it is that it is 'woodsy,'" he said. "There is a lot of development, but it doesn't jump out and hit you in the face. It is set back a little bit, so you do not get the perception of starter castles and McMansions."

Worster said there is currently only one approved cluster development in town - at Lover's Lane, though it has not yet been acted upon. He said the project, which will involve the realignment of Wilson's Crossing Road, will begin when the developer decides to move forward with it, at a currently unknown date.