Town of Wilton, NH

Zoning Board of Adjustment

Case 6/9/20–2

Summary

Lot
H–80
Address
834 Mason Road
Owner
The Krol Family Revocable Trust of 2018
Description

The Krol Family Revocable Trust of 2018 has appealed a Notice of Violation from the Wilton Building Inspector that the property at Lot H–80, 834 Mason Road:

  1. has more than one driveway, in violation of Section G, “Driveway Regulations,” of the Town of Wilton Land Use Laws and Regulations;
  2. is being used in such a way as to violate the performance standards set forth in sections 4.6.2 (“Noise”), 4.6.4 (“Smoke”), and 4.6.5 (“Discharges”) of the Wilton Zoning Ordinance; and
  3. is the site of an unapproved home occupation per section 6.6.1 of the Wilton Zoning Ordinance.
Application
The application
Decision
Granted in part Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Status
Final

Documents

The Submission

The entire package submitted by the applicant.

The application, May 8, 2020

Individual attachments from the application package, arranged in date order:

The Building Inspector’s Record

“The officer from whom the appeal is taken shall forthwith transmit to the board all the papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken.” RSA 676:5,I

The following staff report and timeline were prepared by the Wilton Land Use Administrator to assist with navigating the case record. The individual documents in the case record are referenced and linked from one or both of these reports. Note that some of these are duplicates of attachments to the application.

This is a complete list of the documents in the Building Inspector’s case record which are available on this web page:

Additional Submissions

Submission from Attorney Darrin Brown, June 9, 2020.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020 — Hearing

Notice

The Krol Family Revocable Trust of 2018 has appealed a Notice of Violation from the Wilton Building Inspector that the property at Lot H–80, 834 Mason Road:

  1. has more than one driveway, in violation of Section G, “Driveway Regulations,” of the Town of Wilton Land Use Laws and Regulations;
  2. is being used in such a way as to violate the performance standards set forth in sections 4.6.2 (“Noise”), 4.6.4 (“Smoke”), and 4.6.5 (“Discharges”) of the Wilton Zoning Ordinance; and
  3. is the site of an unapproved home occupation per section 6.6.1 of the Wilton Zoning Ordinance.

The Town of Wilton Zoning Board of Adjustment will consider this application in a public hearing on Tuesday, Jume 9, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.

Due to the COVID-19/Coronavirus crisis and in accordance with Governor Sununu’s Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04, this Board is authorized to meet electronically. In accordance with the Emergency Order, we are utilizing the Zoom platform for this electronic meeting. Please note that there is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to the meeting.

You can participate in one of two ways:

Read more details on the electronic meetings page.

If you have issues accessing the meeting, please call our Land Use Administrator, Michele Decoteau, at (603) 654-9451 x309, or email her at mdecoteau@wiltonnh.gov.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020 — Decision

The appeal of the Krol Family Revocable Trust of 2018 of a Notice of Violation from the Wilton Building Inspector has been granted in part. The Notice of Violation stated that the property at Lot H–80, 834 Mason Road:

* has more than one driveway, in violation of Section G, “Driveway Regulations,” of the Town of Wilton Land Use Laws and Regulations;

* is being used in such a way as to violate the performance standards set forth in sections 4.6.2 (“Noise”), 4.6.4 (“Smoke”), and 4.6.5 (“Discharges”) of the Wilton Zoning Ordinance; and

* is the site of an unapproved home occupation per section 6.6.1 of the Wilton Zoning Ordinance.

The first point of the Notice of Violation involves the application and interpretation of the Town of Wilton Driveway Regulations, which are not a part of the Wilton Zoning Ordinance. The Zoning Board therefore has no jurisdiction to consider an appeal of that point, and it is unaffected by this decision.

The Zoning Board found that the second point of the Notice of Violation contains only a conclusory statement of violations of certain performance standards in the Ordinance, but does not offer any facts supporting the alleged violations, nor identify what activities on the property give rise to the violations and need to be modified in order to resolve them. The second point of the Notice is therefore vacated, without prejudice to the right of the Town to issue a future Notice of Violation which resolves these deficiencies.

The third point of the Notice of Violation appears to claim that the property is the site of an unapproved home occupation, but the Zoning Board found that this is not a meaningful classification. A use is either permitted or not permitted in a zoning district. Some otherwise non-permitted uses in the General Residence and Agricultural District may be permitted as Home Occupations by obtaining a special exception under Section 6.6.1, but section 6.6.1 is applicable only when determining whether to grant such a special exception. It has no relevance to the status of a use which is not the subject of an application for a special exception. If the intent of the third point of the Notice is to claim that a commercial use, not permitted in the district, is in existence on the property, then that is too much of a stretch for the Zoning Board to infer from the language of the Notice; and, in any case, the third point would still be subject to the same deficiency as the second point, that it does not identify what activities on the property constitute the non-permitted use. The third point of the Notice is therefore vacated, without prejudice to the right of the Town to issue a future Notice of Violation specifically identifying a non-permitted commercial use of the property.

The selectmen, any party to the action or proceedings, or any person directly affected thereby may apply for a rehearing of this decision. A request for a rehearing must be filed in writing with the Zoning Board of Adjustment on or before Thursday, July 9, 2020, and must fully specify all grounds on which the rehearing is requested. (N.H. RSA 677:2)

Minutes

Minutes of the hearing