A request for a rehearing by the Londonderry Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) in the Complete Auto Driving case, in which Al Cardello requested a variance to allow the driving school to operate out of the Londonderry Presbyterian Church as an accessory use, ended May 18 with a 3-2 vote to deny the request.
At the June 6 ZBA meeting the board voted to rehear the case based on a request by members Jaqueline Berardino and Bill Benard, who had each voted no, to correct an error.
Berardino and Benard claim the May 18 vote was unlawful and/or unreasonable because they did not vote in favor of the applicant’s meeting all five of the criteria during deliberations, but voted in opposition to the motion to deny the request for a variance. As a result, they asked the ZBA to rehear and/or reconsider the case to correct the unlawfulness and/or unreasonableness of the results.
On Wednesday, July 20, the ZBA held the rehearing to correct the mistake in the original case. A motion was made to deny the variance, and the vote was 5-0.
In other business:
• Bob Feldmann of Colonial Drive filed a request for a rehearing of the Moreau Living Trust variance to allow subdivision of an 8-acre lot with a right-of-way to Colonial Drive into two single-family lots, each having 50-foot frontage.
On June 6, the ZBA heard the Moreau request of the Moreau Living Trust. At that time Richard Canuel, Senior Building Inspector, told the board the lot in question was a landlocked piece and when the Colonial Road subdivision was put in, the landlocked lot was given a 50-foot right-of-way access.
That occurred before the Conservation Overlay was put in place, so as an existing lot of record, the property could be developed for a single-family dwelling without needing a variance or coming to the ZBA.
The property has substantial wetlands and the owner’s preference is to put in a driveway to two lots, but an alternate plan could be to put in a roadway and develop from three to five lots.
The board said the proposed two-lot subdivision was a reasonable use of the property and voted 4-0 to approve the variance.
Feldman provided the ZBA with 20 pages of information to review before deliberating about a re-hearing. Smith asked board members if they wanted to consider the rehearing issue that night, but most thought taking time to reconsider the material was important.
Chairman Jim Smith said that because the 30-day appeal period would expire before the next ZBA meeting in August, it would be necessary to suspend the case to buy time for review. The rehearing request would then be addressed at the next meeting. The board voted 5-0 to do that.