Lebanon
The 4-1 vote to schedule a rehearing was spurred by calls from both rink officials and neighbors to revisit the May decision. The Campion Sports and Recreation Project argues the board unfairly set operating hours, while neighbors say the organization did not provide enough evidence the project at the rink off Route 10 near the Hanover town line is necessary.
The project is expected to more than triple the size of the rink on Route 10 and would increase peak weekend traffic by 89 cars, according to traffic consultants.
“The condition that (the board) came up with for the hours of operation was really a last-minute condition and there was no discussion in the initial hearing of the impact one way or another,” Nate Stearns, an attorney who represents the rink, said on Thursday.
When the Zoning Board approved three variances and one special exception for the rink expansion, it set maximum operating hours at 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. from mid-October through mid-March. The hours would then change to 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays the remainder of the year.
But those hours would be too costly for the rink, which spends a significant amount of money to keep the ice frozen in the summer, Stearns argued in a letter to the city. Because demand increases after 5 p.m. and stays strong until midnight, rentals during those hours are an important source of revenue, he said.
“The shortfall cannot be made up by operating a second sheet of ice because the expenses would be doubled and the overall losses would be doubled as well,” Stearns wrote.
He proposed opening the rink from 6 a.m. to midnight from mid-October to mid-April, and then following a schedule that would see the rink open to 11 p.m. during some seasons and closed in others. As a concession, the Sports and Recreation Project would ask drivers to park in designated spots away from neighbors after 8 p.m.
“The project is still committed to working with the neighbors through their concerns as well,” Stearns said on Thursday.
Some neighbors feel rink officials didn’t do enough to prove the expansion is necessary, however.
Main Street resident David Donely filed his own motion for a rehearing that partly argues an expansion would leave the rink out of character with the rest of the neighborhood. He called the existing complex a “nuisance” that never fully complied with previous Zoning Board decisions, and questioned whether any of the agreed upon concessions actually help neighbors.
Speaking on Thursday, Donely said the rink officials also never presented evidence that there is a need for the expansion, other than supporters who spoke during the hearings.
“There’s no proof that they actually have this critical need for this,” Donely said, adding that other towns have the available space for such a project.
The same argument was taken up by Zoning Board member Al Patterson on Monday.
Under the city’s zoning ordinance, applicants must demonstrate that regulations would present an “unnecessary hardship” to a project before obtaining a variance.
“The hardship to me is (to) the abutters,” said Patterson in an audio recording of the meeting. “The rink’s already there and they’d like to expand it. To me, that’s not a hardship.”
Zoning Administrator Tim Corwin warned the board that anyone asking for a rehearing would need to show that a technical error was made or new information is now available that wasn’t when the board made its initial decision.
“They can’t just come back later on and ask for a change in the conditions,” Corwin said, summarizing a consensus of lawyers on a New Hampshire Bar Association Listserv. “It’s not that easy.”
Board member Dan Nash said he didn’t see either Donely or the Sports and Recreation Project having valid arguments.
The board held an exhaustive review of the project, he said, and went through “great pain” to strike a balance.
“There’s no new evidence. There’s no relevant legal issues that were not considered at the original hearing,” Nash said.
Evidence that the board’s hours wouldn’t work for the rink is new information, argued board member Jennifer Mercer, who said the final decision was made in the “11th hour.”
“They had to answer some questions pretty off the cuff,” she said. “We are certainly not experts in operating a hockey rink and what the hours should be.”
Ultimately, the board voted 4-1 to rehear the project, with Nash as the lone dissenting vote.
The Zoning Board will begin its rehearing of the expansion at 7 p.m. on Aug. 1.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.