Wooden Shutter Mafia

I was glad to see that the Wolfeboro BOS FINALLY dropped their rediculous lawsuit against the Wiggins of North Wolfeboro. Finally, a defeat for North Wolfeboro's "Wooden Shutter Mafia".
oc

Below is the article that was in the Grunter about the ending of the suit:

BY THOMAS BEELER
Editor
WOLFEBORO — Following a lengthy nonpublic session last Wednesday evening, June 3, Board of Selectmen Chair Dave Senecal announced that the majority of selectmen had voted to end the town’s appeal of a March 2008 decision by the Zoning Board of Adjustment
(ZBA) granting a building permit for a house on a Class VI road. Senecal added that board is instructing town counsel to withdraw the suit in Carroll County Superior Court. When asked by resident Suzanne Ryan who voted for ending the suit, Senecal replied “the majority,”
which he then clarified as three out of five. Given the facts that Selectmen Linda Murray and Sarah Silk are the only two selectmen remaining
from the board that denied the building permit to Mark and Carol Wiggins and that Senecal and Selectman Kristi Ginter are on record as favoring the permit, the third vote must have come from Selectman Marge Webster, who was elected last March. The previous Monday
evening, June 1, a three member panel of the ZBA had voted to respond to Carroll County Superior Court Judge Steven M. Houran’s
request to provide in writing the reasons why the ZBA felt that the Wiggins’ request had met the four tests for granting a building permit on a Class VI road required by RSA 674:41,II.ZBA counsel Laura Spector was asked to prepare a draft response, based on the written comments of the three members, for review by the ZBA at its next meeting on July 6. Reached on Thursday, June 4, Spector said the selectmen’s decision to withdraw the suit would make the ZBA response moot because the case would not go any further. Spector also confirmed that the ZBA had met with counsel the week prior to the Monday meeting and did discuss the possibility that selectmen might withdraw the suit.
Mark Wiggins said he was “thrilled” by the decision and “very grateful” for the support he has received from many people in town who have written to selectmen and shown up at meetings to urge that the building permit be granted. Opposition In the Public Comment section of the June 3 meeting, just before selectmen went into nonpublic session to discuss the Wiggins permit appeal suit, Ken Perry, President of the North Wolfeborough Area Association (NWAA) read a statement to selectmen that addressed newspaper reports of statements made during
public input at selectmen’s meetings about granting the Wiggins’ a building permit on the Class VI portion of Trask Mountain Road. Perry pointed out that while the 2006 Master Plan was not adopted until after the Wiggins applied for a building permit, “the MP ‘clock’ started when advertised Public Hearings on the 2006 MP were held in Nov & Dec of 2006, months before Mark Wiggins’ initial application.”
The 2006 Master Plan states that building permits should not be issued on Class VI roads. The building permit application was filed in March 2007. Perry’s second point was that Wiggins paid only $1,600 an acre for the 67-acre lot in 2003 “when similarsized Wolfeboro parcels, of
lesser quality but on Class V roads, were selling for 2 & 3 times as much. He advertised his land for sale in 2006 for $330K to $199K. Unable to sell, he then asked the town to Add Value to his questionable investment. This all occurred before the NWAA made any public
statements on the issue.” Perry added that selectmen “did not consider only what NWAA members supported” in deciding to appeal the ZBA decision to grant the permit to Carroll County Superior Court. The other factors included future Municipal Electric and emergency service costs and the results of the 2006 Community Survey, where more than 83 percent rated preserving open space, historic neighborhoods and
Wolfeboro’s rural character as “very important” or “somewhat important.” Finally he provided information on Class VI roads in town. There are 16 Class VI roads, of which “2/3 are within or border the Agricultural District (northern ? of the town)” and “7 are in one or both of the Historic Districts.” “Will one home change our neighborhood? Absolutely not. However, what about the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.home on the Class VI road? Is it possible that nearby properties will lose some value if Trask Mountain Road is eventually open to through traffic? Absolutely.”
“I respectfully ask the Board of Selectmen to continue to allow the Class VI road issue to be processed by the ZBA.” Selectmen listened attentively to Perry’s remarks, but in the end reached the decision to withdraw the suit by a 3 to 2 margin.

Rules are meant to be broken, I guess.

for posting the relevant article.
oc

I agree too. I really can't figure the whole thing out, it seems they singled them out.

The Town of Wolfeboro didn't need to keep spending our money on an attorney to keep kicking the same dead horse. That's why the case was dropped IMHO.
oc

You read that the Town of Alton has demanded decades of documentation from that huge "Ames Farm" boat-launch site?

That Town has its fingers out for more tax money: I'd expect a hundred Condo units to go in there.

Alton has already blocked Ames Farm from continuing their boat launch. (To pay Alton property taxes—Just like they put Alton's much-enjoyed summer camp business out of business for multi-millionaire Bob Bahre).

This is even worse than the IRS going back the 10-years (they are permitted to) to examine your tax records.

Wolfeboro seems to be keying-in on the very same track.

Isn't the Ames Farm in Gilford, Peace? I think it is but I could be wrong.

You're right tis! And probably the Ames Farm owners do wish that their property was located in Alton, seeing as how the town they are in (which you correctly identified as Gilford] just won its lawsuit against the Ames Farm boat ramp operation, which, while dating back eons, didn't qualify as grandfathered.
Seeing as how the Ames Farm's owners have paid taxes to Gilford for more than a century and the ramp had been there for decades, I think that Gilford abused the power that it exercised.
oc

I agree with you oc. I think they should be allowed to continue. How much impact does it make?

I wasn't certain, but I think you're right.

I meant to include Alton in a money-grab—in place of a large summer camp bringing in fewer tax dollars every year. IOW, I would have voted in favor of keeping a summer lakefront for kids and written off any "lost-revenues".

It was immoral what they did.

"...Seeing as how the Ames Farm's owners have paid taxes to Gilford for more than a century and the ramp had been there for decades, I think that Gilford abused the power that it exercised..."

Ya think?

"Ya think?"
old coot says, "You betcha!"

It's good to see that the Historic District Monarchy is crumbling from the forces of their own historic arrogance.
oc