The Bedford Planning Board has approved one of the largest residential developments in years but economic concerns could slow the pace of construction.

The three subdivisions have the same developer, Dick Anagnost, and are in the same area of town. Most of the homes will be south of New Boston Road and west of Pulpit Road. Fourteen of them will be on the west side of Pulpit and 13 will be on the east.

The largest subdivision – The Preserve at West Bedford, LLC – has 61 single-family lots and five attached elderly homes.

Also, Anagnost is giving 84 acres of conservation land to the town and he is rebuilding portions or all of four roads: Pulpit Road, Walsch Road, Kind Road and Joppa Hill Road. The Preserve at West Bedford will have four new public roads. Those will remain private, however, until three quarters of the homes have been built.

Work on the existing four roads will begin sometime this year. Anagnost said he did not know when home construction would get underway.

“My crystal ball for housing is up for repair,” he said. But he remained optimistic that despite the downturn in the housing market, as well as the economic recession, that the town is still a good location for the development.

“Bedford is a desirable location,” Anagnost said. “There are not a lot of lots left in town. We have a great school system. We are situated well.”

During the April 6 meeting, board Chairman Jon Levenstein said the development could take up to 10 years to be completed. Anagnost said he would build homes as quickly as the market could absorb them.

The Preserve at West Bedford was first presented to the Planning Board in early 2005.

The other two subdivisions – Governor’s View and Governor’s Ridge – were submitted to the board in 2007. Anagnost said a serious amount of engineering, as well as wetlands, terrain and other state permits had caused the planning process to last several years.

The board also approved two waivers. One would allow 2:1 slopes at about 10 spots on the four public roads. Jim Stanford, the Public Works director and a Planning Board member, opposed the waiver. He said it would be more difficult to maintain the slopes and warned they could lead to more erosion. Stanford preferred 4:1 slopes.

He said the developer initially had said he would not be seeking the waiver.

“We were told point blank there would not be any waivers from the road standards,” Stanford said.

Craig Francisco, a land surveyor, said he had not intended to go for the waivers but was told by town staff he needed to request them.

Representatives for Anagnost said the steeper slopes are necessary to minimize the impact on surrounding wetlands. Anagnost said the only alternative was a retaining wall – which he and Stanford agreed would pose other maintenance challenges to the town.

Board member Harold Newberry agreed there is little alternative to the steep slopes.

“I don’t know that there is an answer to that except that it is something that is going to have to be made the best of,” he said.

The second waiver allows the developer to increase the maximum flow velocity in storm sewer drains from 12 feet per second to 15 feet per second. The higher velocity will cut down on the number of catch basins in the development, according to engineer Robert Baskerville.

After the votes, Stanford said the board may consider revising its rules. As it now stands, a developer has to get his wetlands permits from the state before coming to the board for final approval. That process resulted in the steep slopes to which Stanford objected. He suggested that it might be better to obtain the permits afterward.

“I think the outcome maybe would have been a little different,” Stanford said.