By Paul Conyers
The Zoning Board of Adjustment opened its November 16 meeting with a variance request from Nashua’s Bosowski Properties, LLC. The variance would allow Bosowski to use three, 9,000-square-foot multi-tenant buildings on 19 West Road for industrial purposes in an area zoned for business. Attorney, Morgan Hollis, was at the meeting to speak for Bosowski.
“There will be three, small, industrial-type buildings. There’s nobody interested in a business-type use on this site,” said Hollis. “We might have research, manufacturing, electronics, assembly, welding, machine shop, distribution, warehousing, self-storage, or contract yards, all of those have potential.”
The request was somewhat unusual as Bosowski did not yet have confirmed tenants. Currently, the property stores truck trailers. According to Hollis, the West Road property is the “last undeveloped lot” in the area.
“Where are tractor-trailers going to load into these buildings?” asked Alternate Board member Tim Lanphear.
Hollis made it clear that only the basic design of the buildings has been planned, and details related to shipping will come after getting interested tenants. The ZBA unanimously approved the variance.
Nashua lawyer, Elizabeth Hartigan, and Todd Boyer of The Boyer Family Revocable Trust of 2019 made a variance request for a proposed subdivision on 32 Ledge Road for what the application called a “conceptual house” on the property. The Ledge Road property failed to meet size requirements of 43,560 square feet per lot and did not yet have water or sewer connections. It is also surrounded by the Saint Patrick and Holy Cross Lithuanian Cemetries.
“All the lots in the area are already around the same size as we are proposing,” said Hartigan. “Because we’re proposing to bring the water and sewer sown, we’ll be complying with all the requirements. Allowing smaller lots would not affect the character of this neighborhood.”
There was concern over the distance the lot had to the surrounding cemeteries.
“With the cemetery, you have to have a 25-foot buffer. Within that buffer, you’re not allowed to do anything, you can’t excavate,” said Town Liaison, Chris Sullivan. “One corner of the house is really close to that, if they’re going to excavate a foundation, it’s going to possibly breach the 25-foot setback.”
Boyer offered two plans to keep the property away from the buffer during future construction.
“One, we could put [the foundation] on a slab. Two, you can drive steel pilings in the ground, so you cannot make it past the 25-foot mark,” Boyer explained. “Our plan is more or less a conceptual design that house fit there, it doesn’t mean we’re going to put the foundation up against the 25-foot setback, but it can fit there.”
He promised to abide by all requirements and conditions.
After some debate, and an abutter presenting a petition against granting the variance signed by 13 residents, the ZBA voted four-to-one in favor of granting the variance, with the stipulation Boyer keep the lot lines away from the cemetery.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment will have its last meeting of 2023 on Thursday, December 14, at 7 p.m. in the Buxton Community Development Conference Room.