BY KEVIN SHALVEY

Did you ever wonder why clusters of stores, restaurants and office buildings line South River Road/Route 3 instead of being scattered through town?

This is because of a move by town planners to create a viable business area – otherwise known as a performance zone.

The performance zone

The performance zone takes up about 1,600 acres -- about 7.6 percent of the town’s 21,011 acres. The zone follows South River Road, Route 3, from the Manchester to Merrimack border and pushes out to the Merrimack River on the east side.  On the west side, it’s bordered by the F.E. Everett Turnpike and, farther north, by the Route 101 connector.

Before 1990, the Route 3 corridor was a cluster of small districts, with commercial and light commercial mixed with offices and other types. Many of these districts were only two or three blocks wide, said Karen White, Bedford planning director. 

To simplify the area’s planning and to look to the future, a zoning amendment to create the performance zone was introduced, and passed by voters in 1993, White said.

At a March planning board meeting, Justin Bielagus of Terrae of Bedford LLC, asked the board for a break, just a little tweaking of performance zone policy.  

In the performance zone, one of the town’s assigned-use districts, developers are asked to make a fair-share contribution to local roads and utilities.

Bielagus wanted his contribution halved.

“We would ask that the board give us some relief because we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in that area to improve infrastructure,” Bielagus said.

Bielagus was in the final process of a site plan for a one-story office addition to another building at 8 Technology Drive.

Because of the initial construction’s contribution, along with a land donation to the town, he asked the town to decrease a $16,000 fair-share contribution.

At the meeting, Bielagus didn’t get what he came for, but he did get almost $5,000 cut off his contribution.
And this, it seems, is what having a performance zone for commercial development is all about: compromise.
From developers, Bedford gets infrastructure -- utilities, landscaping and local roads.  And the developers get a different set of rules for each step -- usually monetary steps -- they take toward helping the town.
“So, if you invest the extra money, you could develop to a higher density and then pay yourself back,” said Karen White, town planner.

The purpose

When the zone reaches its full potential in about 50 years, Route 3 in Bedford could to be lined by almost all tall shade trees, White said.

Local roads will lead to clusters of businesses and an airport-connected highway will have Route 3 access ramps.

“We don’t want a strip corridor with business after business after business, with nothing behind them,” said White.

White has been involved with the performance zone since its conception about 20 years ago. 

Paul Goldberg, a former town councilor and current planning board member, was involved at that time, too. He said the idea began in the late 1980s.

“At that time, most of the country was going through a bit of a recession and I thought, ‘Why can’t we have a multi-discipline zone and let development go where the marketplace was going,’” Goldberg said.

So, the idea was to have a district where development wasn’t based on the type of business, but rather a set of criteria that the planning board could use as the base for allowable businesses.

Those criteria take up 42 pages in the town’s zoning ordinances, covering allowable parking, sign types, shrubbery heights and the incentives for developers.

“But if you have a really good piece of architecture, and it doesn’t quite meet those guidelines, the planning board can still accept it,” White said.

Airport access

A highway leading from the F.E. Everett Turnpike through Bedford and over the Merrimack River should be completed and ready for traffic by 2011.

It will have on- and off-ramps onto Route 3.

“This project has been around for a long time. It actually started in 1988 in the state Legislature,” said Alex Vogt, New Hampshire Department of Transportation project manager.

The growing airport and traffic, which sometimes jams Brown Avenue in Manchester, led to a 1989 study of the area, he said.

When the results, along with traffic projections up to the year 2025 were analyzed, the airport access road was decided on to help ease traffic, Vogt said.

Goldberg said he and White were at the first meeting for the highway project.

“For the initial concept of that whole plan, the airport was just a minor part,” he said.

Rather, the highway was meant to connect the Everett Turnpike with Route 93. This would add another crossing over the Merrimack River, and would reduce traffic on Route 293 by up to 80 percent, Goldberg said.

Now, the project won’t attach to Route 93. The first project bid will be going out in April and the first steps of construction are expected to begin by midsummer this year.

“There are essentially eight major construction projects that we’re going to be advertising bids for during the next three years,” he said.

Kevin Dillon, airport director of the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, said the new highway will be great for the growing air and car traffic in the region.

“Well, certainly the airport access road is a very important project for us because it will open up our front doors,” he said.

And, the towns will also reap the benefits.

“In some respects, calling this project the airport access road is a bit of a misnomer,” Dillon said.

The town of Londonderry has about 1,000 acres that are prime for development and the Bedford performance zone is prime location for a stopover or convention.

“I think a lot of the activity from the airport will be good for towns like Bedford and Merrimack that will be able to capitalize on it,” Dillon said.

A federal survey recently showed that Manchester-Boston Regional Airport will be, by the year 2020, the fastest growing airport in the region, Dillon said.In 2006, the airport serviced about 4 million travelers and by 2020, it should be handling between 7 and 9 million, he said.

“So, essentially, you have about a doubling of all traffic by the year 2020, according to this study,” Dillon said.
With the access highway, that traffic will likely be headed through Bedford.

Safety

With much of the commercial development confined to one area in town, it’s inevitable that the number of daily commuters will increase. A growing density in senior and residential housing in the Route 3 area, causes medical responses grow, said Fire Chief Scott Wiggin. 

“I guess the uniqueness of our business is that people generate our call volume,” he said.
In the past, there have been estimates for the daily increases in the performance zone. Many of these estimates -- including one that said about 80,000 come into town during the day -- are too high, Wiggin said.

A true count would be difficult because many of the commerce parks have fluctuating populations, he said.