One of the eight proposed cottages in a Dover “cottage court” development. Image courtesy of 5 Sherman Street LLC

A Dover couple who fought a neighboring small cottage court development all the way to the New Hampshire Supreme Court have sold their home – to the developer they spent months fighting.

Now, developer Robert Baldwin is proposing to double the size of his proposed development, from five homes to 10.

The latest designs would keep the two existing houses on neighboring lots, and build eight cottages – small single-family homes, in practice – off a common access drive. Each of the cottages would top out at no more than 1,400 square feet.

Baldwin bought 91 Court St. from project opponents Hilary Hamer and Merlin Mason on July 2 for $725,000, public records show. Foster’s Daily Democrat first reported the sale.

Dover officials had approved Baldwin’s four-cottage project at 103 Court St. next door in January 2025, but Hamer and Mason appealed the decision to the state Housing Appeals Board, which rejected their claim and ordered them to pay part of the city’s legal bills in the case. They appealed that decision to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, but withdrew the appeal earlier this year.