A Whitefield couple described development activity beside their Rt. 17 home as “abuse” at the planning board’s monthly meeting.
Mack and Sue McCrimmon’s complaint focused on earthmoving disturbances related to a warehouse project by Lee Richards, owner of ProKnee Corp. Moving the business from its current location on Devine Road to Rt. 17 entails expanding an existing residence Richards owns there into a warehouse.
The board approved the application with conditions in April, seven months after Richards first approached the board. Sue McCrimmon alleged the activity preceded that first visit by several years and that she called the town’s codes enforcement officer in 2009. Last September, CEO Arthur Strout informed the planners that he had warned Richards he would issue a stop-work order unless the business owner filed an application.
Mack McCrimmon said a rock wall, which his wife described as “a gosh-awful cliff,” towers over their property line; there are sinkholes behind the couple’s swimming pool; dust falls into their barbecue area; and noise from gravel removal, involving a dump truck and bulldozer, is incessant.
Board chair Christi Mitchell noted that local approval requires the business owner to install a 105-ft. fence by the end of this year. Furthermore, there is not supposed to be runoff from his property onto the McCrimmons’ land.
Making sure sedimentation and erosion are under control is a state function and one condition of the board’s approval was that Richards acquire a permit by rule from the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The McCrimmons also questioned why, as abutters, they were not notified of the application. Referencing Whitefield’s development ordinance, Mitchell said no petition signed by 15 people had been submitted to the board indicating such a desire, and that the board has discretion in calling a hearing.
She set a tentative site visit date of Sept. 8.
Resident Walter Chiappini, who owns land on the discontinued Meaher Road off Cooper Road, asked the board about a nearby house that he believes is closer to a property line than the allowed 15-ft. setback. The CEO will be asked to measure the distance.
Local builder Dennis Gould inquired whether a customer, who owns land on Weary Pond, could build a gazebo atop a 10-ft. tall ledge that rises from the shore. No site work would be required, Gould said.
Mitchell determined the area is limited residential, not resource protection, and only if the CEO “has a problem with it” after inspecting the site would the board have to review the proposal.
The board received only one response, other than remarks at the June 30 public hearing, on the revised shoreland zoning ordinance. The letter writer asked to be removed from the resource protection district. “We can’t remove him but we can respond to him and check to make sure he’s not erroneously in the zone,” Mitchell said.
She said she asked the DEP in July to review the changes but has not gotten a response. To allow for absentee voting, Sept. 13 is the deadline for getting the question of whether to adopt the revised regulations on the November ballot.
If the state agency requires any substantive changes, “It’s back to the drawing board,” said Mitchell.
In addition to the ballot question enacting the ordinance, the board approved wording for a separate question that would repeal the ordinance passed in June of 1974. For the new rules to be effective, the old rules must be repealed.
