The state Housing Appeals Board denied Francestown’s motion for a rehearing on Thursday. The act upheld the state board’s decision to overturn the town’s denial of a four-lot subdivision proposed by Ron and Melissa Shattuck.
The Francestown Planning Board rejected the subdivision in January, claiming it didn’t conform to the town’s subdivision regulations, and was inconsistent with the intent and spirit of the town’s zoning ordinance, which is meant to protect the view shed and maintain the rural character of the neighborhood. The HAB supported the Shattucks’ appeal, determining that Francestown hadn’t cited any objective zoning violations in their denial, and thus made an “unreasonable” rejection.
The HAB shot down Francestown’s reasoning again in their July 1 order denying a rehearing.
“A review of the Certified Record finds no factual underpinnings that suggests that the proposed, four-lot subdivision will “affect” the “rural character of the town,”” the order said. Further, Francestown’s planning and subdivision regulations have no language referencing vegetative buffers, and therefore that they required one of a subdivision was unreasonable, it said.
In their request for a rehearing, Francestown alleged the Shattucks harvested timber off their property with the intention of developing the property in the year leading up to their subdivision application, effectively skirting subdivision requirements that they maintain the property’s existing features. In their most recent motion, the HAB reiterated its stance that the Shattucks’ timber harvest was lawful, and they should not be required to maintain the property’s existing features and appearance as it was at any point prior to filing the subdivision request. “To do otherwise leads the parties along an indeterminate path attempting to define the word “existing” as something other than its customary definition,” the order said.
The HAB further ruled that the town’s Master Plan can’t be used to justify a subdivision rejection, other than parts that get formally incorporated into zoning and planning regulations.
Francestown has 30 days to decide whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court, Select Board Chair Henry Kunhardt said on Friday. The Select Board is likely to take up that issue at their next meeting on Monday, July 12.