Update on Zoning Appeals

The Valley News is out this AM with an article about the appeals on the Church Zoning Case. There was a hearing held earlier this week in the Grafton County Superior Court regarding all of the various zoning appeals pending in this case. To recap: there are 3 separate appeals pending before the Grafton County Superior Court, and the court consolidated all of them into one large case and scheduled a 3 hour hearing to consider all the issues.

The 3 issues are: 1) The Ackers have appealed the granting of the Wetlands Special Exception permit. 2) The Ackers have appealed the granting of the Special Exception allowing the Church use in the single family residential zone. 3) CRC has appealed the conditions that were imposed on the use permit by the Zoning Board.

https://www.vnews.com/Town-church-officials-meet-in-court-36676605

The article focuses almost exclusively on the CRC vs Town aspect of the dispute, and just mentions in passing, almost as an afterthought in the final paragraph, that the Court also considered the Acker’s appeal of the Wetlands permit.

I understand that newspapers have limits and reporters have editors, but this is a pretty big mischaracterization of the actual hearing. The article is generally accurate in describing the events it describes, but the reporter only barely scratches the surface of the entirety of the 3 hour hearing. Not blaming the Valley News, because to tell the whole story would be more like a novella, not an article for a daily paper.

Nate Stearns, attorney for the Ackers, made detailed presentations to the court about both issues on appeal from the neighbor’s point of view. Because this is an appeal, not a trial, there are no witnesses and no new evidence presented. The bulk of the work was actually done in advance by the attorneys – they file various motions and pleadings and briefs that lay out the evidence in the record and the points of law that support the decision they are asking the judge to make. At the actual hearing, the attorneys basically make brief oral arguments where they hit the highlights of the briefs they have already submitted, and answer a few questions from the judge.

We don’t know what to expect in terms of a decision, or when we might receive it. And, of course, any decision can be appealed to higher courts by any party. Bottom line, the story is far from over, and the struggle to preserve the character of our single family neighborhood will probably continue for some time.