PORTSMOUTH — The Planning Board has recommended rezoning the former Albin Yachts land to allow 20 luxury condominiums to be built on the industrial site.

With that approval, the property owner’s request for rezoning will go to a public hearing and a final decision by the Town Council.

The former Albin Yachts manufacturing plant sits on 36 acres, zoned heavy industrial, on West Shore Road, abutting the private luxury neighborhood Carnegie Heights, and extends nearly to Narragansett Bay. The land was bought last May for $13.7 million by Conlan Rhode Island Acquisitions, LLC, whose sole owner is Gerald M. Conlan. Mr. Conlan’s own luxury house is located in Carnegie Heights directly behind the Albin plant.

Woodmeister Master Builders, Inc., a construction company hired by Mr. Conlan, has submitted conceptual plans showing that they’d like to build a development similar to the Carnegie Heights and Harbor areas. The plan shows 20 single-family buildings on 40,000 square-foot lots, with private roads as access through the development.

The developer has asked to rezone the land to R-40 to accommodate those buildings. Under heavy-industrial zoning, each lot would be required to have 200 feet of road frontage. That would greatly restrict the number of houses the developer could build so he is seeking a rezoning to residential standards.

Glenn Russell Jr., planning board executive secretary, said the board decided to recommend the zoning change to make it “compatible with the surrounding area.”

To the south and southwest of the Albin land is the Carnegie Abbey Club and high-end neighborhoods. From the Albin land to the east and to the north, at the end of West Shore Road where it intersects with Baker Road, it’s all residential properties, with larger individual tracts off West Shore Road and a clustered waterfront neighborhood on Baker Road.

Twenty lots is not the maximum number that could be carved out of the Albin land if it were rezoned to R-40, according to Mr. Russell.

“Even at R-40 they could have put 16 more units in there,” Mr. Russell said, “if they had tried to cookie-cutter it and maximize the area.”

The developer plans to leave some land as open space — some that would double as a leaching field for a community septic system, and some of the woods that covered a significant portion of the land. Woodmeister has already cleared some land.

Several abutters have protested clearing the woods, which they say is filled with wildlife. These same neighbors said that when trees were cut down to make way for the Carnegie developments, they saw animals fleeing the area.

In return for a special-use permit to make the property a condominium development, the Planning Board said the developer must provide affordable housing comparable to ten percent of whatever is built on the Albin land. The board said the affordable units (two if 20 units go up on Albin) can be built on another site.

No approval has been given to the preliminary plans at this point. Since the developer seeks the special-use permit to create a condominium development, plans will now be reviewed by the Zoning Board of Review.

Albin Yachts clears out for luxury houses

The last vestiges of a boat-building era are being removed in phases from the former Albin Yachts land to make way for luxury houses.

Woodmeister Master Builders was contracted by the property owner, Conlan Rhode Island Acquisitions, LLC, to have the former Albin Yachts facility at 226 West Shore Road cleaned up to prepare plans for luxury houses on roughly one-acre lots.

Last November, Dan Paquette, Woodmeister Master Builders director of development, explained what the company has remove of the boat-building materials left behind, and what is envisioned for the property.

When Albin closed its plant late in 2007, fiberglass boat molds were piled around the property. Trash and metal debris had partially sunken into the dirt. Several half-built Albins, designated for people who had already paid, were marooned by laid off workers.

One of the first steps taken by Woodmeister was to haul away the trash and fiberglass boat molds, in some cases, having to first dig the materials out.

Then most of the parking lot was torn up. Mr. Paquette said the company had heard that neighbors have trouble with stormwater runoff from the property. They wanted to “start out on the right foot with neighbors,” he, and hoped this would alleviate the problem.

“It was kind of like a junkyard before,” said Wayne Costa, who had worked as Albin’s site manager for seven years and now performs the same work for Woodmeister. “Now you can see the potential.”

The 146,000 square-foot Albin building will also go, according to Woodmeister. But there are still a few companies that have leased space there until July.

Mr. Paquette said that the company intends to recycle all possible materials. Asphalt and concrete will be ground up and used as fill or as a base for the development’s private roads. Woodmeister is also considering geothermal systems to produce heat, as well as wind and solar energy.

Woodmeister’s plan is to put 20 luxury houses on the 36-acres.

“It’s a seacoast farm setting we’re trying to create,” Mr. Paquette said. “Very Carnegie-like,” he said.

When asked if it will be difficult to market similar properties so close to each other, Mr. Paquette said, “The fact that (Carnegie Abbey) has a proven and demonstrated market is great for us.”

Mr. Paquette said the company plans to include some amenities in the development, though he didn’t specify. The plan shows no such amenities at this point.