To the editor:
The Quinn Bros. LLC – a sand and gravel strip-mining company operating in Wilton – wants to build and operate a poisonous, polluting, and unsightly asphalt factory in our town.
They want us to allow their trucks to grind along our roads, the noise of their factory and their trucks to disturb our peace and quiet, and the poisonous gases and chemicals emitted to pollute our air and our water.
To do this they need the town to override its current legal limitation on heights in the industrial zone, increasing it by 60 percent. Why would we do that? According to NH law, (RSA 673:33) the town zoning codes can only be overridden if: the proposed use “will not be contrary to the public interest.”
Can anyone seriously claim that that is the case here? Who decides what is in the “public interest” if not the town’s residents and taxpayers?
Two surveys of town residents, in 2012 and a year or two ago, show that what we value most is our town’s rural and historic character. If the matter were brought before town meeting the vote would probably be strongly against such a variance being granted.
The Wilton Zoning Board is scheduled to discuss the Quinn application for a variance at the Board’s regular meeting in the Wilton Town Hall at 7 p.m. next Tuesday, Sept. 10. If you care about preserving and enhancing Wilton’s present rural and historic character it would be good to be there.
William and Dodie Finlayson
Wilton