Meeting called to order at 7:00pm by Brooks McCandlish, Chair.
Members Present:
Brooks McCandlish, Chair; Stephen Pierce; Bill Duffy; Bob Hodges; Nathanial Bruss, Alternate; Heather Weed, Alternate
Members Absent:
Denise Renk: Heather Weed was seated
Review and Consideration of Minutes
Minutes of September 7th were approved with no corrections
Minutes of October 11th site walk for Map9/Lot45 were approved with no corrections
Public Hearing for Map9/Lot45
The public hearing was opened at 7:02
Brooks opened the floor to the applicant:
Bob Carey, the attorney representing William C Heselton “Churchill” explained to the Board and to the public what Churchill’s plan was. Churchill would like to open a motor vehicle junk yard located on his property on the corner of County Rd and Rowe Mountain rd, Tax Map9/Lot45. His plan is to use 2.9 acres, a total of 2% of his property. This junk yard is 500’ from the road and according to Mr. Carey the RSA requires only a 300’ setback. He explained to the Board that this business will not be visible from the road and that the abutter will not be disturbed by any noise due to all the trees surrounding the business. Churchill’s plan is to make this a one man operation that he will initially begin with only 2 days a week until he retires, at that point he will be increasing his days of operation. He does not plan on operating this business during the winter. There will be a gravel road leading into the 2.9 acres but Churchill only plans on using 1.5 acres for the actual junk yard. Mr. Carey informed the Board that there is a regulation stating that there needs to be a 6’locked fence surrounding the Junk yard and Churchill will be in accordance to that regulation. There will be a 30’by40’ concrete slab that Churchill plans on using to drain the vehicles and once they are drained he will re-cap all drainage areas before removing the vehicle from the slab. The other slab shown on the map may have a garage on it, but not at this time. According to Mr. Carey, DES also requires that there is a secondary containment system and Churchill plans on following those requirements. He also informed the Board that there is no need for a septic as this is a one man operation.
Mike Seraikas, a wetland scientist was hired by Churchill to assess the property. Mr. Seraikas went to the site on October 4th and assessed the plants and the soil. Mr. Seraikas passed out a letter with his findings to the Board and explained the letter to the public. (This letter will be attached to the minutes) After his assessment Mr. Seraikas feels there will not be any negative impact on the land or the soil
Mr. Carey spoke with the Bradford Fire Chief and reported to the Board that the Chief said that as long as DES is happy than he will be happy and in support of the business. The Chief did have questions on how they were going to contain the fluids and Mr. Carey was able to answer those questions. The chief also told Mr. Carey that he does not feel there needs to be a water tank on the property because the operation is so small.
My Carey stated to the Board and to the public that this is a “modest operation for a modest individual”. At this time Mr. Carey presented the Board with letters of support from members of the community, these letters will also be attached to the minutes. Churchill’s goals are to have around 50 cars on that property at a time, and he does not plan on stacking the cars on top of each other. They plan to only cut trees where the junk yard will be located and keep the remaining trees to help with noise and visibility. Churchill informed the Board that he wants to open this business so that he does not need to sell the land and it will also help him with his taxes. He would like to keep all of his stuff in one location and maybe start with having 10 rigs on the property right from the beginning. His intention is to keep the land private, just as it is. He started that in the beginning he will most likely use a generator until he can get power out to that location. He told the Board that in terms of Freon he has a friend that he will be able to hire to remove that properly.
At 7:55 Brooks opened the floor to people in support of this business. There were around 9 people that spoke in favor of this business and overall these people feel that Churchill has done his research and lots of planning into this. They also started how much that Churchill and his family has done for the town and that Churchill has been a very gracious individual by letting towm members use his property for hunting, skiing, ect. It was also mentioned that this is a great location for a business like this due to the fact that there are not wetlands to be concerned about and it is also 500’ away from the road and will not be visible to people passing by. They also said that this will be better for the environment because rather than having people leaving their cars on their own property and not properly removing all the liquid, they will not have a place that they can take their cars to be properly handled. A lot of people feel that there are no environmental issues because Churchill has done his research and has put together a plan with all the correct steps. The members that spoke mostly all started how Churchill is an honest and stand up citizen in Bradford.
The floor was then open to those that oppose the business. There were around 9 people that spoke in opposition to this business. Overall there was a big concern in what this business was going to do with people’s property values, they are concerned that it will also be harder to sell any property surrounding the junk yard because once potential buyers hear there is a junk yard as an abutter they will no longer be interested. Another huge concern from the opposition is the fear of the chemicals that Churchill is draining from the vehicles getting into the soil and also into their drinking water. People also mentioned that having 2 or more unregistered vehicles on one property is technically considered a junk yard and people feel that Churchill already has illegal junk yards on other property that he owns. They fear that if he already has illegal junk yards, what is to say that he is not going to follow the regulations for this current proposal. Ann Eldridge read a letter from the Conservation Committee and that letter will also be attached to the minutes, they do not support this business. There were also concerns about traffic and conditions of the roads impact by having lage trucks going in and out removing vehicles.
The floor was than open back up to the supporters and applicant for a rebuttal. It was mentioned that if this Special Exception gets approved by the ZBA it will then have to go in front of the Planning Board with a site plan and that is where the conditions will be set up, it is also up to the Planning Board to approve or deny the subdivision of the 2.5 acres. The applicant also reminded the public that once all the liquid has been removed from the vehicles on the concrete slab that he will be plugging the holes back up so that there will be no drainage into the soil. It was also mentioned that road run off is a lot different than land run off sue to the trees and all the soil. One member in support of this business is an appraiser in Belmot and started that it is almost impossible for there to be an impact on property value due to the buffered visibility and sound. This same member suggested having the people that oppose this business to go and get an appraiser to assess the property values and that way there will be exact data. Mr. Carey spoke about the “illegal” junk yards that Churchill supposedly already has and said that Churchill wants to open this business so that all his stuff is in one location and also allow other people to bring their cars to this location and will then be monitored by the state that will be making random inspections to make sure that Churchill is following Best Management Practices.
The floor was than opened back up to the opposition for their rebuttal. People are still very concerned about the toxins getting into the soil and the water, one person started that these toxins once they are in the soil never go away and the fear of how many toxins will be entering the surrounding soil and water. It was also brought back up that Churchill already has a junk yard behind his barn and he has shown no efforts in complying to regulations so the people are concerned that he will not follow these regulations and that puts their water, soil, and property value all at risk.
Brooks read all the letters to the Board and the public that were both in support of the business and opposed to the business so they could be on record in the recording of the meeting.
The public hearing was closed at 9:29PM
The Board then proceeded to go though each criteria and discuss as a Board what their thoughts were.
- Members of the Board felt like this was an appropriate site for this business because of the distance from the road and the buffering of the trees. Brooks did suggest to the applicant that maybe instead of having a strait driveway into the junk yard to maybe have a slight curve so that when people drive by it is not a straight view of the junk yard.
- Bob feels that this business is detrimental to the neighbors, and he states this concern because he is a realtor himself and sees that this could be an issue for people trying to sell their property next to a junk yard. Heather stated that she ½ agrees with Bob, but reminded the Board that a lot of these concerns are based on a worst case scenario and that there is no actual data supporting these concerns,
- Bill stated that he does not feel that it creates any hazards for vehicles or pedestrians. Steve also mentioned that this will be in a fenced area and that will also be another layer of protection.
- The Board feel there are no issues with this because it is a one man operation so there will not be a need for sanitary facilities
- The Board also does not feel that there are any issues with this criteria because it is not a place where there will be a need for parking due to the size of the business.
- Brooks read directly from the Zoning Ordinance to the Board and the public. After reading this Heather and Brooks both stated that they feel Churchill’s proposal fits within the spirit of the Zoning Ordinance.
Stephen reminded the Board and the Public that this application tonight was for a Special Exception for a Junk Yard on 2.9 acres, this is not a meeting to vote on subdivision.
Stephen then made a motion to approve the application with a few conditions:
- There is no subdivision
- Soil testing be given to the town by the owner and he also needs to give the town all his responses from DES regulations within 30 days.
- That the 1.5 acre area be fenced
- Best Management Practices must be followed
Heather seconded the motion
Vote: Brooks: yes; Stephen: yes; Bob, no; Heather, yes; Bill, yes.
Final vote 4-1 in favor of approving the Special Exception
Letter from Conservation Commission
Petition & Letters of Opposition
As there was no additional business to come before the board, meeting adjourned at 10:03PM.