Please help Ashland Vet Hospital

[donnamatrix]

I cannot believe the ZBA/PB of Ashland has done this: Please read this article and consider making a donation to help this local business, founded in 1994.
http://www.gofundme.com/qyjqb4?fb_ac..._ref=undefined

[tis]

That is awful. These towns boards are getting way out of control. Your property is not your own any more. I feel so sorry for the vet hospital.

[Rusty]

The gofundme Legal Defense Fund article states: "They have denied my special exception that was granted in 1994 and 2014 in this past meeting!"

Does anyone know what that "special exception" is that they are talking about?

I think it has something to do with noise but I'm not sure.

[feb]

All of the details are in the description of their GoFundMe page. I rarely (read never) get involved monetarily or emotionally in these types of situations but after reading the description and even adding a little " the truth is usually someplace in the middle" logic it still seems like this business is getting
scr3w3d by the town. I plan to donate a few bucks just for the cause.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by feb

All of the details are in the description of their GoFundMe page. I rarely (read never) get involved monetarily or emotionally in these types of situations but after reading the description and even adding a little " the truth is usually someplace in the middle" logic it still seems like this business is getting
scr3w3d by the town. I plan to donate a few bucks just for the cause.

It does talk about the neighbor complaining about too much noise, but what is the "special exception" that the article talks about. I couldn't find anything at the Ashland Website about it or the ZBA/PB meeting reports. I guess if someone knows the ordinance that he seems to be violating, I would like to read it.

[Seaplane Pilot]

Originally Posted by tis

That is awful. These towns boards are getting way out of control. Your property is not your own any more. I feel so sorry for the vet hospital.

You can say that again. The worst part is that this business will now be forced to pay substantial legal fees to defend themselves against this injustice. Granted, it's most likely that they will prevail in court, but how can they ever recover the money spent on legal fees, and also try to run a business and give quality care with all of these baseless distractions?

I will donate to their fund. I hope they get a good lawyer that slaps these people at the Town of Ashland silly. When I woke up this morning, it was still the United States of America, in the Live Free or Die state. Enough is enough!

[BroadHopper]

The vet hospital was there first! Why did they even bother to buy the land in the first place, if they don't want to live next to a vet hospital!

Remind me of the Hudson Speedway back in the 80's. A big shot developer built a housing development next to the speedway. He had trouble selling the homes when folks told them about noise from the speedway. He ended up trying to close the speedway!

The courts didn't buy the developer's story as the speedway was there first and the developer should have known better! It was quite the fight and I am sure the developer lost his shirt. The speedway is still there!

The same principle should be applied to the vet hospital.

[upthesaukee]

Person buys a house under the flight path into a busy airport and then wants the runway closed because of the noise. Crazy.

If I looked at a house next to a Vet's office, I would make a point of finding out just how much noise the dogs make when in the exercise area.

Only good thing is maybe this will take the pressure off of Alton's town officials

[Seaplane Pilot]

Has anyone contacted WMUR about this? Time to expose the Town of Ashland's antics.

[wifi]

Absolutely agree with previous posters. Someone buys into a neighborhood then demands the right to change it to suit them. The squeaky wheel needs to be replaced.

[brk-lnt]

Donna - thanks for posting, I tossed a few dollars in to the pot.

[Greene's Basin Girl]

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

The vet hospital was there first! Why did they even bother to buy the land in the first place, if they don't want to live next to a vet hospital!

Remind me of the Hudson Speedway back in the 80's. A big shot developer built a housing development next to the speedway. He had trouble selling the homes when folks told them about noise from the speedway. He ended up trying to close the speedway!

The courts didn't buy the developer's story as the speedway was there first and the developer should have known better! It was quite the fight and I am sure the developer lost his shirt. The speedway is still there!

The same principle should be applied to the vet hospital.

This reminds of some issues that have happened on the lake. People buy a lakefront house and then they complain because the no wake zone stops right before their home. They want to extend the no wake zone and make it longer. Up near Green's Basin we have enough no wake zones. I have been in the Basin since the 1950's. I do not need newbies ( those that do not look at the speed zones in front of their home ) move in and want to change things.

[Rusty]

This article is in todays addition of the Plymouth Record Enterprise:

BY DONNA RHODES
ASHLAND — A public hearing of the Ashland Zoning Board was held last Thursday evening to hear arguments from attorneys representing both veterinarian Don Lester and his neighbors, Francis McBournie and Scott Bell, who appealed the board’s prior decision to approve an addition to Dr. Lester’s Northern Lakes Veterinary Hospital, which was first built in 1993.
Lester maintains that he received approval from the board and all the necessary permits, then built the addition last spring when no timely appeals had been received from his abutters. He now has an unsigned occupancy permit for a building that he paid $140,000 to construct, but still cannot use.
McBournie and Bell, who reside in a home they built seven years ago, did, however, file an appeal two days after the deadline had expired, and eventually took their complaints about Lester’s business expansion to the state’s Supreme Court.
At the hearing last week, Zoning Board chairman Eli Badger said the New Hampshire State Supreme Court had sent the matter back to the board so they could revisit the matter based on the complaints from McBournie and Bell.
The first matter addressed was a variance for the addition and a new driveway.
Attorney Chris Bolt represented the two men who filed the appeal, and said that the key issue was the noise they are subjected to from the business.
“You did require him (Lester) to come up with a noise plan for the variance, but one was never submitted,” he said. “Their health, safety and welfare is a concern as a result of the barking dogs.”
He further argued that the new driveway was an added noise factor for his clients, as traffic and horse trailers en-ter Lester’s parking lot.
Residents were able to speak on the matter throughout the four hour meeting, and all voiced their support for Lester’s veterinary clinic and its expansion.
Diane Hill said she couldn’t understand why a variance for the animal hospital was even in question, since road frontage set backs would not even affect any abutters next door.
“So what’s the problem?” she asked.
Her question was met with a round of applause.
Another resident stated, “This was already granted once. Is that fair?”
As far as the variance, the board determined that Lester’s original structure was approved before the current set-back regulations from the roadway were written, but the facility still meets setback requirements on the side and back of the property. Since the addition is on the back of the building, is smaller than the original structure and located in a central part of the property where it does not encroach on the home next door, the board found no issue with granting Lester the variance. The driveway, they noted, was also ap¬proved by the state, and the board found that it posed no problem for neighboring properties.
The special exception for the business and the issue of barking dogs was another matter, though.
Nuisance barking is considered that which lasts for more than an hour at a time. Bolt’s clients maintained that barking from Lester’s property goes on for as much as six continuous hours, and they presented tapes that they claimed document the incessant nature of the noise. Most of the approximately 80 people who attended the hear-ing found that hard to believe, however. Some went so far as to suggest that the two men intentionally brought their own dogs outside knowing the presence of unfamiliar animals next door would set them off, then taped the resulting barking as “evidence.”
Jeanette Stewart lives across the road from the veterinary office, and said she has never heard continuous barking from the business.
“There are no trees, no bushes between us that would soften the sound. It really upsets me that this would happen to Dr. Lester. I’d be the first to complain if there was a problem,” she said.
Lester’s attorney, Daniel Muller, asked that the special exception to expand his client’s veterinary business be granted, as it is a permitted use in a rural residential area. He stated that Bolt’s clients were fully aware of the veterinary office next door to their property before they bought the land and built their home.
“The notion that they thought they were coming into an area with no noise was probably not a reasonable expectation,” Muller said.
Police Chief Tony Randall also stated that when he looked back over the years since the neighboring home was built, he could only find three barking dog complaints in that neighborhood, and two did not pertain to the veterinary office.
He further assured McBournie and Bell that he and his officers take all complaints seriously, and if there were ever any instances of dogs barking for six hours, the police certainly should have been notified.
Muller stated that Lester complied with past cease and desist orders for boarding dogs, and the only animals using his outdoor kennels now are a few ill or injured dogs who go outside for a short time during their recovery and are never left outside overnight or for extended periods of time.
In deference to his neighbors, he said Lester also made changes in the location of the new outdoor kennels and has taken extra measures to keep windows closed and erect a barrier wall to help keep sound from traveling next door.
McBournie and Bell felt that was ineffective, though, Bolt responded.
The board deliberated on the several questions a majority of the members needed to agree upon in order to grant the special exception for the use of the building.
While they were unanimous about most of the requirements, one final condition failed to get a preponderance of the vote.
Badger received a vote of 2-3 on the final question pertaining to the adequate and appropriate use of the facility, and therefore declared that that matter was not substantially proven through Muller and Lester’s presentation.
So while the building received the necessary variance for its driveway and road frontage, Lester will have to con-tinue to fight for the use of the added wing now.
“We’ll be filling an appeal on that right away,” he said as the hearing drew to a close.

[AC2717]

Absolute BS

[SIKSUKR]

This pretty much says it all for me.

Jeanette Stewart lives across the road from the veterinary office, and said she has never heard continuous barking from the business.
“There are no trees, no bushes between us that would soften the sound. It really upsets me that this would happen to Dr. Lester. I’d be the first to complain if there was a problem,” she said.

[radioman]

Rusty, Thanks for taking the time to post that info, the story just gets better and better!! So now we learn that 7 years ago a pair of wealthy males come into town from who knows where, buys and builds in rural Ashland next to a well established Vet hospital and are now trying to stop his operation.
I guess the barking dogs are interupting the soft music and expensive wine. How shameful, and shame on the town officials for buying into it!! Well, WMUR has been informed. Hopefully this story will go national.

[Pine Island Guy]

this sounds very familiar to a story that was on-going when we lived in Hollis NH... the sportsman's club that had been around since 1913 came under attack by a group of new residents/neighbors (many of which were lawyers conveniently enough and seem to have an endless budget) in the 1990's... first they sued for noise, then for environmental pollution, then for permits/exemptions, etc etc... the club fought it in court, endless injunctions against them, blah blah blah... however the club is still still not able to shoot outdoors... a travesty!!

it happens all the time... the city people want to move to the country and then want to impose their city views on the existing residents...

for more info: http://www.lonepinehuntersclub.com/i..._Jacobs_le.pdf

think ice-out -PIG

[wifi]

Originally Posted by Pine Island Guy

.....it happens all the time... the city people want to move to the country and then want to impose their city views on the existing residents...

Same thing happened to the Winnipesaukee Sportsman Club (on 109 in Moultonboro) decades ago. Someone bought an abutting property with full knowledge of the noise of shooting and law suits went on for years. The WSC prevailed but the lawyers were the only financial winners. The loser of a lawsuit needs to pony up ALL fees before appealing it.

[Happy Gourmand]

Originally Posted by Pine Island Guy

this sounds very familiar to a story that was on-going when we lived in Hollis NH... the sportsman's club that had been around since 1913 came under attack by a group of new residents/neighbors (many of which were lawyers conveniently enough and seem to have an endless budget) in the 1990's... first they sued for noise, then for environmental pollution, then for permits/exemptions, etc etc... the club fought it in court, endless injunctions against them, blah blah blah... however the club is still still not able to shoot outdoors... a travesty!!

it happens all the time... the city people want to move to the country and then want to impose their city views on the existing residents...

for more info: http://www.lonepinehuntersclub.com/i..._Jacobs_le.pdf


think ice-out -PIG

We built a house on that road in Hollis in 1979 and I remember this situation well. we knew the gun club was there and it only generated a few pops on a few occasions. Sometimes they had a meet of some kind and there was more noise. Many of our neighbors were upset with us because we would not join their "cause". Every one of us knew the club was there before we bought or built.
This is total nonsense.