The Francestown Planning Board voted to extend the hearing for a subdivision proposal by Ron and Melissa Shattuck into January, which overruled a proposal by two board members to reject it out of hand. The decision came at the end of another three and a half hour meeting devoted to the topic on Dec. 15, the fourth full meeting devoted to the parcel at the corner of Stevens Road and the 2nd NH Turnpike this fall.
“I am not comfortable with the assurances that I’ve received tonight,” board member Sarah Pyle said in her movement to deny the proposal, citing the pushback the Board encountered from Meridian Land Services representatives and the Shattuck’s lawyer as the two parties attempted to negotiate satisfactory terms for the proposal. The Shattuck’s representatives flatly refused to include building envelopes on the proposal’s schematic, and refused several proposed stipulations for a vegetative buffer to obscure the proposed houses from sight on Stevens Road during the meeting, with a Meridian representative suggesting at one point that the town could purchase the roadside portion of the property from the Shattucks if they cared about the viewshed so much.
Other Board members, including Chair Karen Fitzgerald and Selectman Brad Howell, didn’t support the motion to reject the proposal and successfully encouraged the Shattucks to agree to an extension of the proposal’s timeline, believing that a mutually satisfactory agreement was close. They agreed to reconvene on Jan. 5, under the conditions that the Board receive a planting plan for a vegetative buffer in advance of the meeting, and with the understanding that the Board would reopen the item for public comment for a limited amount of time. The board intends to question lawyer Amy Manzelli, who represents community members opposed to the project, prior to making a motion to approve the subdivision.