4-26-08
Zoning Appeal Against Walpole Withdrawn
By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer
I. Tucker Burr of Walpole and other, unnamed citizens, have withdrawn their appeal of the town Zoning Board's grant of a special zoning exception to Chamberlain Machine of Rockingham VT.
Burr and others had objected to the Zoning Board's allowing Chamberlain to proceed with plans for a new machine shop on the former Hubbard Farms property called Huntington Farm. They argued that Chamberlain had not met the requirements for a special exception to the land's rural agricultural zoning and that a machine shop was not an allowed use under the town's wellhead protection ordinance.
After the Zoning Board granted the exception to the site's rural agricultural zoning in December, Burr and three others appealed to the Superior Court in Keene on January 4. The other parties were later removed from the appeal when it was revealed that they had not consented to having their names on it.
At its April meeting, Walpole's Planning Board approved Chamberlain Machine's site plan development petition, and firm executives announced imminent plans to begin construction. At the same meeting, Bensonwood, a Walpole timber frame construction firm, received the Planning Board's endorsement to seek a special zoning exception from the Zoning Board for Bensonwood's own building proposal on land abutting Chambelain Machine's plot at the Huntington Farm site. Bensonwood wants to erect several buildings on the land where it will assemble components of homes and other construction projects in the future. If the Zoning Board grants Bensonwood its special zoning exception, as it did Chamberlain Machine's request, Bensonwood will then return to the Planning Board to seek approval of its full site plan development petition.
Attorney Steven M. Whitley of the Concord firm of Baldwin Callen & Ransom who filed the motion to "non-suit" the Burr appeal said Thursday that the appellants "reserve the right to refile their appeal at a later time." Whitley would not say why they had decided to withdraw their appeal at this time. While Whitley did say that others besides Mr. Burr were behind the appeal, he could not identify them.
John Hansel of Walpole, rumored to be behind the original appeal filed in early January, when asked if he was involved, would only answer "No comment."
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