Both the Walden Eco Village and the Monadnock Rod & Gun Club will be waiting until the at least the new year for a ruling on their applications, as both were continued by the Peterborough Planning Board Monday night.
Applicant Akhil Garland is seeking a 20-lot subdivision for the Eco Village after facing a series of challenges, including lawsuits over permit and safety violations and the eviction of all the tenants living on the property. The issue has been continued at every Planning Board meeting since the summer, after the town asked for a third-party review of the property’s wetlands and hydrology that has not yet been provided.
Board members cited the still-missing information related the Eco Village as their reasoning for continuing the hearing.
“I think we’re just going in circles,” said board member Sarah Steinberg Heller. “And I think these outstanding items give the applicant plenty of guidance so we can have a more meaningful conversation.”
“The problem is that we’ve seen various iterations of the plan,” said Vice Chair Ivy Vann. “We need a plan that has everything in it. We have to have the information that we have to have.”
No representatives for the Eco Village were present at the meeting to discuss the matter.
Regarding Monadnock Rod & Gun Club, the Planning Board is awaiting a ruling from the Zoning Board of Adjustment on an appeal of town Code Enforcment Officer Tim Herlihy’s administrative decision that an important section of its application is not valid.
After being shut down following lawsuits from the town and abutters when it was found to have expanded one of its ranges without proper permits from the town, filled in wetland areas and crossed over an abutting property line, the club is applying for a shooting range to be allowed on the property in an effort to recoup legal costs and allow the business to function again. In order for the matter to move forward, the site would need to be acknowledged as being a grandfathered use due to the town’s restriction on outdoor shooting ranges.
Herlihy ruled that the site would not be grandfathered, and the gun club submitted an appeal of this decision, according to Town Planner Danica Melone. The ZBA will discuss the matter at its meeting in January.
The Planning Board’s next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 10 at 6:30 p.m.