November 27, 2009
 
ZBA reverses decision on Danis Park business
By DAN O’BRIEN

GOFFSTOWN - The battle over an illegally operated Danis Park Road boat business has sailed in a favorable direction for concerned neighbors.

After an unusual urging by the Board of Selectmen, the Zoning Board of Adjustment reversed an earlier decision Nov. 10 saying property owner Scott Buckland could not operate a boat repair business at his residence.

The Zoning Board voted Aug. 4 to allow the business to operate after Buckland said his late father-in-law, Aiden Roy, who previously owned the property, was grandfathered past a March 1961 zoning regulation that placed the property in a residential zone. He said a business had been operating on the property before then and in the decades since.

However, since that claim was made, Buckland’s neighbors handed zoning code enforcement officer Derek Horne a sworn affidavit from a previous property owner saying no business had operated on the property in the 1990s. The property was subdivided in 1992.

Horne was also contacted by Roy’s son, Bedford Town Councilor Paul Roy, who adamantly denied that his father ever operated a business on the property.

“What I am concerned about is the fact that my father was portrayed as someone who was involved in something known to him to be illegal,” Roy said. “My father was a God-fearing, law-abiding man who prided himself on integrity.”

While trying to determine the truth of the matter, town officials discovered sparse documentation of business operations on the property, and said there was no documentation a business operated at the site before March 1961. Buckland denied that assertion.

The Zoning Board held a re-hearing on the issue Nov. 3 after it was requested by selectmen and Horne. They voted on the matter after a lengthy discussion during a special meeting Nov. 10 and ruled there was no evidence Buckland’s property was grandfathered past the current zoning ordinance.

Buckland has until Dec. 10 to file for a variance and is not allowed to operate his business from the property. Horne said last week that Buckland has not notified him about filing the waiver.