New Plan Emerges to Redevelop Canter Brook

The owner of Canter Brook Equestrian Center in Hamilton, after abandoning a plan for senior housing on the property, has a new plan to redevelop the property.

Jerry Dawson said on Thursday that he plans to end the commercial use of the property, that’s used to board horses, and subdivide it into single-family house lots.

Dawson is scheduled to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Aug. 7, when a public hearing is scheduled to hear Dawson’s request to drop a previously imposed condition that limits further division of the property beyond two lots.

From there, Dawson said he plans to bring a so-called Approval Not Required, or ANR, plan before the Planning Board. It would show a subdivision of the land that meets zoning requirements for lot size, frontage and other town bylaws.

It’s not clear how many house lots that ANR plan would show for the 14-acre property, but the zoning for the area allows two-acre lots, Dawson said. That would allow, at the very most, seven lots. Dawson said the required road frontage would need to be obtained on either Asbury or Highland streets and there’s no roads on the property that could be used to get the required road frontage for a new house lot.

Dawson, who owns a development company based in Lynnfield, said he’s still not sure whether he plans to build the homes or would simply sell house lots.

“There’s still a lot of question,” Dawson said he needs to answer about his plan.

Already, Dawson said he’s conferred with town officials about whether he even needed to go before the Zoning Board to get one of 30 conditions dropped from a 1996 Zoning Board decision when the property was known as Flying Horse Stables. He was encouraged to bring it before the board.

“I am going to the hearing to tell them I am abandoning the commercial use,” he said.

The previous plan – which spent about two years under review by town officials and boards and faced fierce opposition from neighbors - to build a 43-unit senior housing development on the property has been abandoned, Dawson said.

“The market has changed and there is so much inventory on the market,” he said, referring specifically to senior housing and retirement-living projects.

In addition to Penguin Hall, which is planned for Wenham, Dawson said a development similar to the one he planned that’s located near the Topsfield-Ipswich town line on Route 1 has sold only a handful of the 24 units.

Dawson first pushed to redevelop the site at 354 Highland St. after losing money – at times $5,000 to $10,000 per month – for most of the eight years he has owned the property. He said he has lost money on horse property almost from the moment he bought it, with the exception of the past December through February. The cost of maintenance plus property taxes in too much to make a profit, he said.

When he shuts down the horse boarding operation about 20 horses would need to find a new home, he said.