Lebanon
The arrangement has worked well for years, according to rink officials. But while those hours provide more ice time for groups in the Upper Valley, they’re technically in violation of city regulations.
This weekend, the rink is preparing to open for the season, and city officials say they don’t intend to stand in the way.
The rink’s hours have become a source of confusion in recent weeks. Rink officials requested a rehearing in July of a previous approval for the facility’s expansion, arguing an updated rink needs more flexible hours. During last week’s meeting, Zoning Board members were expecting to hear arguments about the rink’s expansion and future hours, but were instead met with complaints over the possible loss of the current hours.
When the rink was first approved by the Lebanon Zoning Board in 1987, city officials mandated its season begin in mid-October and run until mid-March. But rink officials moved away from those hours a few years later, without any record of them telling the city.
“It’s very clear what the 1987 approval says,” Zoning Administrator Tim Corwin said. “The language is clear. It says mid-October to mid-March.”
But it’s unclear why rink officials decided to schedule ice time before the approved mid-October date. Officials did not return calls for comment on Tuesday.
Because the rink is currently before the Zoning Board asking for new hours, Corwin said, the city won’t force it to close. That action is usually taken against businesses with safety problems, not ones that open earlier than allowed.
“To me, they’re in the middle of a process and they’re trying to address what they need throughout the Zoning Board process,” he said.
The prospect of being forced to close was on the minds of rink officials earlier this month, though. Coaches said they were told they might have to wait to begin their long-planned programs, and many showed up to a Sept. 19 meeting to plead for the rink’s traditional hours, confusing board members.
“It was totally out of left field,” said Corwin, adding that he only had contact with attorney Nate Stearns, who represents the rink, prior to the meeting.
He said Stearns contacted the Planning Office to ask which regulations the rink would be held to. In May, the Zoning Board granted a new approval for the rink’s planned expansion that “supersedes and replaces” the 1987 one. But Corwin came to the opinion that since the rink was granted a rehearing on its future operating hours, the May decision was null and void.
Corwin said he did not say the city intended to close the rink, and doesn’t understand where that idea came from.
Regardless, rink officials began to worry and word got out to coaches.
“What I heard through the Hanover Improvement Society was that there was this off chance that the rink would have to reduce hours to open later on Sundays,” said Dan Weinstein, who is starting a speed skating program at the rink this year. “When I heard that, I thought that it would be terrible for speed skating.”
So, he came to the meeting and told the board of how his 7 a.m. ice time at the rink offered more families and children the opportunity to try out the sport.
Louisa Howard, who also heard similar rumors about the rink, came to the meeting and testified. She runs an adaptive sports program and was concerned about the fate of her program this year.
“I was freaking out because I made these plans a long time ago,” she said.
The next day, she got an email from the rink’s manager saying the rink would open this Friday. Weinstein said he also got a schedule from the rink and plans to begin his program on Sunday.
Howard said she assumed the Zoning Board and rink were able to come to a conclusion about the facility’s hours the next day, but that’s not what happened. The board delayed a decision on rink hours.
Stearns, the attorney, said he heard the rink intended to open soon, but wasn’t sure. He’s also not sure why rink officials changed the hours after 1987, but heard there was a high demand for ice time and discussions might have taken place with the city, although there’s no written evidence of such talks.
Corwin said there haven’t been any recent complaints about the rink’s hours. If there were, they would have been handled like any other zoning complaint, he said. There are two options the planning office considers when a facility is out of compliance: work to bring it back into compliance or have them go back to the Zoning Board.
Only if the property owner doesn’t comply with those two choices will the city bring it to court, he said.
“We would be doing exactly the same thing as we are doing now,” he said, referring to the ongoing Zoning Board hearings. “That’s how zoning complaints are addressed. That’s how zoning violations are addressed.”
The only time the city would be less flexible is if health or safety issues are involved, he said, which is a rarity in the world of zoning violations.
Zoning Board Chairman Jeff Halpin said on Tuesday that everyone should follow the “spirit of what was approved in the past,” but added that the rink’s current hours haven’t been an issue. Even if he thought what was going on is wrong, the board itself has a limited mission, he said.
“Enforcement is a staff issue not a board issue,” he said.
When the board convenes, it only focuses on what is being asked, Halpin said. Whether it’s a variance, special exception or appeal of city zoning enforcement, the board tries to discuss only the issue before it.
Halpin’s assessment of the rink’s hours as benign was supported by David Donley, an abutter to the rink and an outspoken opponent of its expansion.
“They’ve been breaking the 1987 agreement ever since I moved there 10 years ago,” he said, adding that his complaints have mainly been focused on the future year-round hours once proposed by the rink.
He also attended last week’s board meeting prepared to hear about a new proposal for hours and the expansion project, not current hours.
“Basically, they admitted that for the past 20 years they’ve been operating that rink early and closing late in the season,” Donley said. “They kind of opened up a can of worms.”
The Zoning Board is scheduled to continue its discussion on the rink at its next meeting on Oct. 3, although rink officials have requested they postpone the discussion until Oct. 17.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.