It’s been a while since my last update, but lots has happened recently. With the emotional and financial support of many neighbors and friends, Lara and I have vowed to do whatever we can to stop the construction of the proposed 21000 SF building and 1 acre paved parking lot in the middle of our residential neighborhood.
The fact that the developers plan to use the building as a church is completely irrelevant to our our opposition. What is relevant is that the building is designed to draw 400 people and over 100+ cars into our neighborhood. Of course, it’s not the type of use we object to – it is the scale and intensity of use that has always been the problem. And, the very real threat of increased flooding, property damage, and environmental destruction in an already flood prone and fragile area.
Sadly, rather than ever engage in any meaningful conversations with any of the neighborhood residents, the leaders of the church have repeatedly lawyered up and dismissed our concerns as “frivolous”.
So fast forward to what happened earlier this month. CRC is relying on a recent state law that allows developers of churches to avoid all but the most very basic of local land use requirements and oversight. Essentially, the law in question says if you want to build a church, you can do whatever you want, wherever you want, and the local Zoning and Planning regulations don’t apply.
We filed an appeal with the NH Land Use Court, citing what seems to be the blatant unconstitutional nature of this law. The Church and the NH Dept of Justice both opposed our suit, and filed Motions to Dismiss our claim. The judge did dismiss some of our claims, but most importantly, in the ruling he held that there was sufficient reason to believe that the statue might be unconstitutional and ordered that our suit could continue.
The entire order can be found here for anyone interested in seeing all the detail: NH Land Use Court Order
And, the Valley News has a good article that can be found here: Valley News Article 2/10/25
What happens next is unknown at this point. We’re in uncharted territory and the procedural next steps are currently cloudy. But, as Yogi Berra said:
“It ain’t over til it’s over”
Greensboro Road Neighborhood Info 