12-12-07
Walpole Developers Failing to Meet Subdivision Conditions
By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer
Fred Dill and Randy Daniels, doing business as Walpole D&D LLC, have not fulfilled Planning Board conditions for approving a residential subdivision they revealed at a Walpole Planning Board meeting Tuesday evening.
Beginning with a public hearing on May 8 and continuing through several additional hearings, Dill and Daniels persuaded the Walpole Planning Board to grant approval—with conditions—to their proposed 8 lot major subdivision off Hooper Road between Old Keene and Wentworth Roads.
Those conditions, included in a confirming letter sent to Dill and Daniels September 19, instructed them to “submit a plan [for upgrading Hooper Road] approved by the road agent as previously agreed to, [and to] post a performance bond based on road agent’s specifications to insure completion and compliance with the Town’s standards for a Class V road”. In addition, the Board required Dill and Daniels to submit a proposed storm water drainage plan and other conditions.
On November 16 the Planning Board sent Dill and Daniels a letter telling them that it had discussed the status of the subdivision at its November 13 meeting and requesting them to “meet the conditions of the approval granted 9/11/07 prior to beginning any work on the project.” The Board’s November 16 letter also warned dill and Daniels that their “proposal is in danger of becoming permanently invalid or denied if you do not meet the conditions placed on it immediately and to the satisfaction of the Board.”
Instead of complying with the Planning Board’s conditions, Dill and Daniels went around the Planning Board to the Selectmen to seek a waiver of the performance bond required by the Planning Board, authorized reconstruction work on Hooper Road after conversations with the road agent instead of submitting a proposed plan to the Planning Board, and did not submit a storm water drainage plan.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Planning Board, Dill said that he had met with road agent Jim Terrell three or four times regarding proposed road improvements. He also said he “signed an oral agreement” with Terrell and thought he had sent a copy of it to Board secretary Pam Aslinger. Dill also announced, to the evident surprise of the Board, that the road work had already been completed subject to a review in the spring for any additional needed improvements disclosed by winter freezes and thaws. Neither Aslinger nor Board Chair Jeff Miller had received such a letter of agreement or a proposal for the road improvement plan.
“We wanted a plan for the road design and we haven’t seen one,” noted a clearly frustrated Chairman Miller. “If you don’t want to submit plans, we don’t need to approve your sub-division. And we haven’t seen any plans.”
Dill conceded, “The road is done” and added “we thought we were sticking our necks out” in doing so.
Dill also conceded that D&D had not submitted a storm water drainage plan, explaining that omission by saying that they had made no changes and had no plans for changing storm water drainage. Chairman Miller told Dill “you went around the conditions, you did not communicate with the Board as you were obligated to. This raises precedents for the future. It’s important that people realize that, when the Planning Board imposes conditions, you have to follow them.”
With respect to seeking a waiver of the performance bond that D&D had agreed to provide, Miller noted “we are still in charge of performance bonds—not the Selectmen. You went around our conditions that you agreed to by not posting the performance bond, by doing road construction without getting Board approval of your plan, and by not submitting a proposed drainage plan.”
By yesterday Planning Board members, frustrated with Dill’s and Daniel’s non-compliance with agreed conditions, were investigating options for enforcing the conditions on D&D’s sub-division approval. Further actions are expected.
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