Town of New Boston
Zoning Board of Adjustment
Meeting Minutes
02/15/05
Final, approved 03/15/05 unanimously
Lull Road Corp, Inc. application for “Special Exception” to operate a gravel pit, map/lot 3/5, this is a continued hearing from 12/21/04.
Board members present and voting as follows: Vice Chairman Harry Piper acting as Chairman, Ed DiPietro, Phil Consolini, Robert Todd, Laura Todd clerk.
Harry Piper opened the hearing at 7:01 PM, asked for roll call and agenda. He then proceeded to explain how he would conduct the hearing. The applicant would be heard first, abutters and interested parties supporting the application second, abutters and interested parties opposing the application third, then the applicant could rebut, supporters could rebut and those opposing could rebut. He strongly urged that no one repeat themselves.
A question from the audience (Paul Morin). Is this public hearing and if it is has it been decided if this is a regional impact? Answer, yes, it is a public hearing, and yes we will decide.
Bob Todd moved that this is a regional impact because it appears the proposal intents to utilize roads outside the Town of New Boston. The river transcends property boundary across town lines. 2nd by Ed DiPietro. Harry then yielded to other members to speak to motion.
Ed said after reviewing the application with the exit going through a pit in Weare, the gravel from that original pit never reached the amount proposed in this application. So there would be an impact. The motion passed unanimously.
Laura said that the town of Weare and Goffstown, as well as SNHRPC had been notified of the hearing by the NB planning Board. Harry asked if anyone from these towns or the commission was present. Paul Moran, 31 Norris Road, Weare.
Harry Piper then asked the board to decide if this was a viable application, because he was concerned the existing pit was not grandfathered. It was found to be an existing pit. That the applicant would be exiting through another lot was another matter of concern for Harry Piper.
Bob Todd said other than the regional impact; use of an easement is not really anything other than a private matter. Mr Wilson granted the easement.
The board voted on the viability of the application and it passed unanimously.
Atty. Charles Cleary introduced himself, Ray Critch, Dave Walker, Craig Francisco and Mark ? of Bedford Design, Jim Gove of Gove Environmental, Tim Golde from Steve Pernard regarding traffic. Addressed what he thought were misconception. It is a 55 acre private property with no conservation easement or other restrictions on it. It was purchased for development. Lull Road Corp, LLC went before the ZBA and Planning board with a cluster development plan, needed a variance, and was denied. Lull Road believes the sand and gravel is a valuable resource, and they intend to proceed. There is no intention for a life long gravel operation, maybe about 5 years, then a subdivision with family homes.
Atty. Cleary then reviewed the criteria, (1) the proposed use will not adversely affect the capacity of existing or planned facilities. Of the 55 acres 29.9 acres will be excavated, the remainder will not. There will be no structure; the exit is through the lot to the north, no water, won’t effect fire department, no school. They will extract the resource for sale, and provided taxes to the town of New Boston. Also, provide resource and value to the town.
(2) The proposed use will not adversely affect the character of the area. The character referenced in that ordinance can not be existing condition, topo, state of development or Special Exception could not be granted. Special Exceptions are permitted uses under the ordinance subject to conditions that the board must find exists. The character of the area is the area surrounding the subject property. 25.9 acres will be excavated, to the east side is river and state land, there are 8 abutters to south and west and to the north is a gravel pit. Atty. Cleary then displayed a map showing the area he was referencing. This can be found in the application packet in a reduced form. Excavation and residential to not go hand in hand, by they do exist. This is a 5-6 year plan and the area will be
reclaimed after that. This is a reasonable use and the area will not be adversely affected.
Robert Todd asked if the use of the river would be affected by the excavation. Atty. Cleary said they did not think so.
Atty Cleary continued, excavation site is smaller than total parcel area. 700 +’ buffer from residential dwellings, is fairly substantial when the required amount is 150’. Hoping that will reduce noise, will be excavating 5 acres at a time and reclaim as they go. All material will be hauled through the gravel pit to north, not through Lull Place. Additional steps to make sure it doesn’t adversely affect is the character of the area. Asking to remove 200,000 yards per year, which is 35 trucks a day. The hours of operation will be M-F 7-5 and Sat. 8-12, with Sat being local only. This should not be the giant pit everyone envisions. At the end, it will be a subdivision and make it residential.
(3) Will not adversely affect the traffic in the immediate vicinity. Has private easement through Wilson pit, are 1 mile from Rte 114 and 1/3 mile to Rte 77. Expect small percent to head to Rte 114, but the majority to head to Rte 77. Applicant has talked to road agents in both New Boston and Weare and Twin Bridge Road can handle that amount of traffic. NHDOT has been notified and responded state highway can handle this type of traffic and will do no damage to intersections. The site distance is good from the pit exit, with a small amount of tree trimming. Other pits in Weare and New Boston are winding down, so increase of traffic is less likely. The applicant is willing to put up a bond for road and repair as necessary.
Chairman Piper called the next agent for applicant, which was Dave Walker, the civil engineer for Bedford Design. Mr. Walker presented the final grading plan, showing drainage, phasing, and pit excavation. He acknowledged the concern of runoff into the river and explained the plan to redirect the water into a ditch, create a berm along the river, create a pond, then treatment swales in the wetland. NHDES has an application for altering terrain permit and the setback requirement is 75’ according to RES 155E because the river is navigable. The area by the haul road will be excavated first, then excavation will be done in phases. A drainage study was done to find out how much run off there was on the 25.9 impacted acres. A pre and post analysis was done on a 25 year storm and 28 cubic feet per
second in what would happen now, with a retention pond and final grading it will be reduced to 13 cubic feet per second. Addressing the question of the volume of runoff, in a 25-year rainstorm it is estimated 1million, 200 gallons of water will run off. After the grading and pond, that would be reduced to 480,000 gallons. Plans have been presented to the town for erosion control standards and storm water pollution plan, required before construction.
Ed DiPietro asked if wetland ponds would remain. Yes was the answer.
Jim Gove of Gove Environmental Services spoke next, he did the wetland delineation, high intensity soil mapping, walked the site for input on storm water retention plan and temporary erosion control. One of the issues was to make sure that forested vegetative buffer remain along the river. There are some D&E slopes (steep slopes) and the intention of sequencing and storm water retention plan was to make sure they would work into the site and never directly down into the river and have exposed soil. He proposes to use mulch berm because they do a better job than silt fencing. Where there is tree cover, it will be maintained. The do not want to have any sedimentation go into the river and want to maintain the aesthetics. By doing the sequencing, the potential discharge will go away from the
river.
Bob Todd asked if the soil was susceptible to wind erosion. Jim Gove answered it was mostly coarse sand with small amount of fine sand, thinks there is potential for wind erosion. That is why they didn’t want to expose all at once and there will be 5 acre increments, with loaming and seeded to stabilize. They are sensitive to that issue.
Tim Golde from Steve Pernaw office for traffic control was next to speak. He showed the sight distance from the entrance ontoTwin Bridge Road and the intersections at Rte 77 and Rte 114. They evaluated trip patterns and distribution. He showed photos of the Wilson exit toward Rte 77 and Rte 114 and explained the process of measurement, according to AASHTO green book. (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials). Height of eye, 3.5’, to height of object 4 ¼’, 10’ in from edge of road. Looking left from exit you see white pine in r.o.w., with pruning the site distance would improve, looking right the site distance is in excess of 400’. At the intersection of Rte 77, looking right, the site distance is 1000’, looking left it is
600’. At the intersection of Rte 114, left and right site distance is in excess of 400’. Mr. Golding explained there would be 35 trucks per day and showed the possible routes through Weare, Gofftown and New Boston that would be taken, then heading south. He also noted the routes would depend on the time of day.
Ed DiPietro questioned the 35 trucks per day, meaning 70 actual trips? Yes was the answer, but other pit are finishing possibly traffic will not increase.
Robert Todd asked if the applicant was doing the trucking or it would be contracted. Atty. Cleary said it would someone else with 9 or 10 trucks.
Atty. Cleary finished discussing the character of the area, the bank would be left to block the view from the river and after the excavation is finished the houses would not be seen either.
Phil asked where the gravel would be hauled. Wilmington Mass was the answer.
Chairman Piper called for a 10-minute break, so presentation material could be reviewed by anyone interested.
Chairman Piper addressed the hearing, stating that a point of order had been brought to our attention. According to RSA 36:57 II, after a determination of regional impact, the Southern NH Planning Commission must receive notification with plans within 72 hours of such determination, they also needed to be notified 14 days prior to any hearing. Because we had determined this was a regional impact at this hearing we must comply with this statue. The Town of Weare, Goffstown and the SNHPC had been notified of the possibility of a regional impact, but no plans had been provided. In short we are in violation, under RSA 36#3.
Discussion followed between Atty. Cleary, Chairman Piper and Paul Moran. Atty. Cleary stated a court case (Mountain Valley Mall Assocs. v. Municipality of Conway (2000) ) where the court decided there was proper notification. Mr. Moran noted that the missing piece of documentation in that case was the meeting minutes. (Not plans) THIS CASE CAN BE FOUND IN “NH PLANNING AND LAND USE REGULATION 2001-2002 EDITION” page 54 under Annotations.
After further discussion, the board and Atty. Cleary determined the hearing could continue without jeopardy. Chairman Piper informed all attending that no determination would be made tonight, but testimony would be taken and entered into the record. This hearing would be continued to a place and time specific. (March 15, 2005 in the Grange Hall @ 7PM, if anyone wanted to leave now) but would be officially announced when testimony concluded this evening.
Chairman Piper asked if anyone IN FAVOR of the application would like to speak.
Dave Elliott, 39 Tucker Mill Road, New Boston, spoke saying he thought the applicant had done a responsible job of planning this project.
Jeff Fillmore, 49 Hopkins Road, New Boston, spoke saying he thought the plan was good.
Chairman Piper asked if anyone OPPOSED to the application would like to speak.
Bill Bolton, 42 Norris Road, Weare, stated that the intersection of Twin Bridge Road and Rte 114 also had Norris Road and Hoyt Mill Road with zero site distance, at that intersection. He said that intersection had the highest track record for accidents. He was making a petition to the Town of Weare to address that He knew a little about gravel and knew that it wouldn’t happen in 12 months, but more like 6,7 or 8 months. He intends to have the road posted (Twin Bridge Road) for no through trucking. He also said the road agent had refused to comment on this application. The Wilson pit is the only pit in the area with an old history when there were no home there, now there are 80 + homes. He said that the intersection of Rte 114 and Rte 13 in Goffstown is also a dangerous intersection, and
thought that no one would want to go down Mont Vernon Hill as an alternate route. He thought that the decrease in water flow would be bad for the river. He questioned if this site was in the aquifer.
Andrew Carlson, 98 Lull Road, New Boston, said he owned 9 acres by the subject property and he was concerned about the character of the neighborhood. He currently can’t hear any gravel pit noise, he had lived there for 5 years, built his home and left a 7 acres wooded. He said the applicant had said he would be sensitive to abutters, the environment and wildlife, and then had clear-cut the property. He doesn’t this that is very sensitive. The gravel pit would destroy the character, by the noise and pollution.
Bill Rollins, 11 West Lull Place, New Boston, submitted a letter to the ZBA (see file), he has lived here for 12 years, it is a quiet setting, mature forest, wildlife, no traffic, dead end, one lane road. He wasn’t surprised when a subdivision was proposed for the property ($1.5 million was the price paid for it) and had spoken in favor of the cluster subdivision. He had attended the ZBA hearing where the variance was sought and heard Atty. Cleary say without the variance they could do a major gravel excavation. He said Mr. Marden had spoken in favor of the variance, but it had failed because the applicant couldn’t meet one of the five criteria. He said logging then commenced and the applicant has abandoned all efforts to be environmental responsible. He wondered if Atty. Cleary was
incompetent or was all of that to disguise their real attempt and to blame the ZBA. He is a unhappy abutter. The surrounding area has already been diminished in value.
Chairman Piper asked that speaker limit their time to 3 minutes in fairness to others that would like to speak.
Tania Wrzeszcz, 199 Twin Bridge Road, Weare, was not notified until this hearing. Is concerned about the noise of trucks and that dust will blow all day and wonders what will be done with the easement once the gravel operation is over.
Atty. Cleary answered it is a limited easement, he didn’t know.
Ms. Wrzeszcz then asked why couldn’t the road in New Boston be used. Tris answered, no problem if they could get a permit.
Martin Kelley, 7 East Lull Place, New Boston, said what had been said had been said eloquently, but this impacts further than the abutters here and further than what has been suggested here.
Paul Morin, Weare Planning Board, said he was not in favor nor against. He was concerned the traffic study was only site distance and not the danger of the intersection. he also wondered how two boards in New Boston could make a decision that would effect an intersection in Weare. He suggested the Town of Weare should have a full and formal review of the application and the New Boston board should act only with that condition.
Chairman Piper said the New Boston Planning Board has the right to ask for an independent traffic study. Discussion then followed about who the independent study would be performed by and who would review it.
Atty. Thomas Quarles, Devine and Millimet, representing abutters. The Atty. noted that the Wilson gravel pit did not extend to the end of the property as it showed on the map of pits. He also noted the surrounding properties that were protected by state forest and scenic easement and the river corridor and is very much protected. Reminded the board that RSA 155E has the strictest rules, and then reviewed them. This river is a natural river and come under the highest protection, he was concerned about the change in runoff flow.. Continuing he repeated, information about the clear cutting, NHDES forcing the maximum set back. He reminded the board about our page 25 of the master plan and the work done to preserve the river by the town and others. He urged the board to reject this
application.
Brenda Lind, 174 Joe English Road, New Boston, spoke of the state forest investment, permanently preserving the area by tax payers money in 1991, how she enjoyed the area and it’s treasures. The river is a public waterway and the town has put in a large investment to preserve the river. The gravel pit will adversely affect the river.
Nancy Fletcher, 27 Howard Lane questioned what is to prevent them from doing what ever they want. She then questioned the integrity of the company.
Chairman Piper stated that the board could put restrictions on the operation.
Cheryl DelVicario, 77 Lull Road, New Boston, voiced her concern about the traffic during school hours.
Jay Marden, Gregg Mill Road, New Boston, The applicant started with 700,000 yards, now they are up to 1.1 million yards. He then presented the board with pictures of the clear cut that had happened. He pointed out how they had cut on the ridge line and slope toward the river. Abutters have seen dust on the ice from the clear cut and in his opinion the clear cut is illegal.
Chairman Piper invited Atty. Cleary to rebut.
Atty. Cleary reserved the right for abuttal for the next meeting.
Chairman Piper invited those in favor of the application to speak again.
Jason Martel, 74 Main Street, Francestown (bought the property of 41 West Lull) said the plan seemed to be done factual. He would be the closest abutter and has no problem with the proposed pit. He said the photos that were taken of the clear cut were taken on my front yard and his property had been trespassed upon. The bottom line, facts came from the applicant, everyone opposing has been personal.
Raymond Johnson, 506 Davis Lane, Francestown, hopes to be the contractor to remove the gravel from the proposed pit. He has been hauling since 1991, and is currently winding down an operation. He said he operates year round and trucks do run down Mont Vernon Hill. His truckers drive very carefully and respect school buses. His practice is to put down calcium and stone to eliminate dusts.
Chairman Piper asked those opposed to speak again.
Forest Esenwine, Weare ZBA, 63 Buxton School Road, Weare. He doesn’t know who is telling the truth and who isn’t. His concern is the plan presented has access onto Twin Bridge Road and that road is owned by Weare. He does not anticipate the Town allowing trucks to use that road, it is not a state road and the town is not going to allow someone else to use it. Who will put up a bond?
The applicant is willing to put up a bond.
Paul Morin, Weare Planning Board, said the willingness is appreciated and the planning board would not have the ability to engage on that level, the road agent does not have the authority. The town has a formal process for that.
Susan Woodward, Greenfield Road, New Boston, questioned if the road is impacted, isn’t the quality of life impacted. Chairman Piper explained the recourse the Town of Weare would have.
Randy Parker, Mill Street, New Boston, was concerned if Weare disallowed trucking, then all trucks would come throught the New Boston center.
Jay Marden, Gregg Mill, New Boston, said that several people had stated that pits were running out, the ZBA had just approved a pit on Salisbury Road. Cronin pits are closed, but more material is there.
Chairman Piper reminded the all attending that this hearing would resume on March 15, 2005 @ 7PM, in the Grange Hall.
This portion of the ZBA hearing was complete @ 9:25PM
Respectfully submitted
Laura Todd
02/17/05
REVISED 03/11/05
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