Portsmouth neighbors criticize Chinburg demolishing homes for million-dollar 'McMansions'

PORTSMOUTH — A plan by developer Eric Chinburg to demolish two older homes near his company’s high-end housing development off Woodbury Avenue has angered neighbors.

A group of people who live near the older homes — and his Woodbury Reserve housing — turned out to oppose the demolitions at this week’s city Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting.

The board granted variances Chinburg needed to move forward with his plans to demolish a home at 6 Boyd Road and 216 Woodbury Ave. and replace them with new homes.

Several residents pointed to what they see as a growing problem of older homes in Portsmouth being razed and replaced with bigger, more expensive homes.

Million-dollar-plus homes becoming norm in Portsmouth

Boyd Road resident Phyllis Randell told the board she was angry about the planned demolitions, and “disappointed and disillusioned.”

She said when the initial plan came for the development at the intersection of Boyd Road and Woodbury Avenue — which a different developer first pitched — it included renovating the homes now set for demolition.

“Why must every home in Portsmouth now cost over a million dollars?” she asked. “There’s still a need in this city for modest homes, not every home needs to be torn down so developers can build another McMansion.”

Randell maintained “there’s no reason, except for corporate greed, that these homes should be demolished.”

“The new condos (in Woodbury Reserve) already take up a huge portion of that property, which was combined solely to allow maximum density,” she said. “Now should these existing homes be torn down ... only so more expensive additional units can be built, thus allowing the developer to increase their profits? Where’s the benefit to the neighborhood? I see none."

She asked the Zoning Board of Adjustment members to “finally take note and stand up for the neighbors, the people of Portsmouth, and the character of the city itself.”

Demolition of homes raises ire in Portsmouth

Boyd Road resident Karen Foye told the board during their Tuesday night meeting she lives across the street from 6 Boyd Road, one of the homes to be demolished.

“I’m here opposed to tearing down these homes, because the agreement was to renovate them,” she said. “I want to hold you guys accountable. Do you know how many houses have come down in Portsmouth .... so someone can put up million-dollar homes?

“We have such a housing crisis, it’s crazy,” she added.

Foye, like other neighborhood residents, told the board “there’s nothing wrong with 6 Boyd Road.”

“They evicted the people living there, they were great neighbors, now they just let it sit,” she said. “No one’s there.”

Chinburg explains reasons for demolishing and replacing homes

Reached Wednesday afternoon, Chinburg said it was a “difficult” decision to demolish the homes and replace them with new ones.

He stressed his company looks to create “energy-efficient, high-performance homes,” including the ones in the Woodbury Reserve development.

“We would have had a really hard time renovating to our standards,” if they tried to renovate the existing homes rather than replace them, Chinburg said.

“By the time we renovated them, it would have been more expensive to do that than building a brand new energy-efficient home. That’s how we made the decision,” Chinburg said.

“We didn’t come to the decision easily,” he added, noting the homes were part of the housing project that his company bought in 2023 at Woodbury Avenue and Boyd Road.

“I’ve made my name renovating and saving old mills and keeping things that are useable and can still be wonderful places to live,” he said.

Deciding whether to renovate an older home or demo it and build a new one is made on a “case-by-case basis,” he said.

“It’s often just more expensive to renovate than to build new energy-efficient homes,” Chinburg said.

Some residents complained about the high-end prices on the new homes being built at Woodbury Reserve, which Chinburg’s company states “start at $1.3 million plus.”

The company comes up with homes prices, he said, by “basically adding up what it costs to buy the property and build the homes,” and then adding “a fair margin.”

“Unfortunately that’s the market now …we’re not gouging people,” Chinburg said.

“I certainly understand it,” he said when asked about concerns raised by Portsmouth residents about homes being demolished in the city and replaced by more expensive ones.

“I understand their concerns,” he added.

Chinburg Properties website describes Woodbury Reserve as “Portsmouth’s newest pocket community.”

“The architecture of these new homes is inspired by Portsmouth’s 400-year history while the interiors boast Chinburg’s modern conveniences and premium craftsmanship,” according to the company’s website. “This new condo community consists of four spacious duplex units and four single-family homes in the heart of Portsmouth’s West End and just one mile from downtown.”

“I’ve been doing this for 37 years, we just try to be fair and do the best we can,” Chinburg said.

More than 130 homes demolished in Portsmouth since 2018

Deputy City Attorney Trevor McCourt drafted and posted a “Demolition Review” memo in November in response to concerns raised by residents and city officials.

If someone proposed to demolish a structure in the city’s Historic District, “that application is subject to rigorous review as against those standards defined by ordinance,” McCourt wrote.

“The Historic District Commission has authority to deny demolition applications under certain circumstances,” he wrote in the memo.

But for properties outside the Historic District, which both of Chinburg’s homes in question are, “the city’s ability to apply criteria, other than safety ... is limited,” McCourt wrote. “The current regulatory process only seeks to provide a public forum for the discussion of demolitions."

Shanti Wolph, Portsmouth's chief building inspector, said there have been about 203 demolitions in the city dating back to 2018.

An unofficial examination of the information he shared showed at least 131 of those demolitions involved properties with residential uses. That included the demolition of single-family homes, apartments, mobile homes, duplexes and multi-family homes.

It is likely that in many if not most of the cases, the residential units demolished were replaced by new units.

History of site where homes will be demolished and replaced

The home at 6 Boyd Road was built in 1951 while 216 Woodbury was built in 1935, according to city records.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment voted in April 2022 to grant the variances needed for Maple Heights Realty LLC – the developer at the time – to demolish the former stately Victorian home at 212 Woodbury Ave., which had become run down and neglected.

Maple Heights Realty LLC of Exeter bought 212 Woodbury Ave. — along with 214 and 216 Woodbury Ave. — for $2.425 million in 2023 to create the housing development site.

The Chinburg company bought the properties – along with 6 Boyd Road – later in the year, according to comments from his lawyer and documents filed with the city.

The price for the properties was $3.2 million, according to documents filed in the city assessor’s office.

212 Woodbury Ave., which has since been demolished, was built in 1870.

Development of 'cookie-cutter houses' criticized

Woodbury Avenue resident Martin Ryan, who serves on the city’s Historic District Commission, has lived in the neighborhood for 28 years.

He told the Board of Adjustment he was “against any further intensification of the construction activities at the Chinburg construction site.”

He initially agreed to the housing development plan, “after living with an abandoned house for more than two decades.”

But now, Ryan said, “the developer is proposing the removal of a classic bungalow style house and also a house that’s been part of the neighborhood fabric …for decades.”

The homes, he said, are “part of the community.”

He criticized the plan to replace the older homes with “literally catalog-style, cookie-cutter houses.”

“These come out of a catalog on a website,” Ryan added.

He told the board the neighborhood has endured “a very poorly run site.”

“It has gotten so bad that we’ve had just mud caked in the road,” Ryan said. “I’ve reached out to the city, I’ve reached out to the developer, and they have addressed it, they’ve swept it.”

But, Ryan added, the construction site is “a daily situation.”

“On wet days it’s muddy, on dry days it’s cloudy with dust,” Ryan said.

During a visit to the site Wednesday, construction crews worked steadily, but the area appeared to be well-maintained.

Chinburg acknowledged “we had some issues with the site work.” He stated those issues “have since been remedied.”

“What you saw is because we made it better,” he added.

More Portsmouth home demolition coverage:

Bid to replace 1960s Portsmouth home with multi-family home rejected as emotions run high

This 1880 Portsmouth home will be demolished and replaced. Not everyone is happy about it.

1870 Portsmouth home to be demolished as part of new housing development

A Portsmouth waterfront home sold for $4.4M. So why is the new owner tearing it down?

Kent Street neighbors fight approval of demolition

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth neighbors criticize Chinburg for demolishing homes