Plainfield
Instead, she says she’s been forced to endure noise at all hours of the night and constant light pollution from her neighbor, a Frito-Lay distribution facility owned by Bellows Falls, Vt., company Bart Industries.
“It’s really my personal home where I expected to grow and be,” Franklin said. “Now, my bedroom at night is no longer dark.”
The 3,500-square-foot distribution facility that was built earlier this year on Route 12A hasn’t just upset Franklin.
Other neighbors also have complained that it is operating in violation of a 2017 Zoning Board decision that says the building can only be in operation from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week, and the town has stepped in to try to help resolve the dispute.
Neighbors said they hoped that Bart’s ownership of the 3.5-acre property could be good for the neighborhood.
The site was an eyesore for nearly two decades, after a fire gutted the trucking company that operated there in the 1990s, according to neighbor David Lillie.
The property also underwent a $1.2 million cleanup in 2004, aimed at remediating industrial contamination.
Thousands of tons of contaminated soil were removed in that effort, and monitoring wells still remain.
“All of us are on the edge of our seats hoping it’s not going to become more of a burden,” Lillie said in a phone interview.
During a town review of the property last year, some residents pushed back against the idea of another company moving onto the site, worrying that it once again could be abandoned.
However, Bart officials promised to be good neighbors, and agreed to limit the hours trucks would come and go.
They also promised to landscape the site in a way that partially would shield neighbors from warehouse operations.
“We weren’t psyched about what was going in, but at least the new landowners were trying to be agreeable to neighbors,” Franklin said.
But problems became apparent when the town noticed that Bart failed to landscape the property. Officials brought the company before the Planning Board this year, and it was agreed that trees would be in the ground by June 1, 2019.
And when trucks began coming and going, neighbors heard car doors slamming at midnight or back-up beepers at 3 a.m.
Franklin said she called Bart and then the town to complain, which resulted in a November Zoning Board meeting where Bart officials blamed Frito-Lay for the problems.
When the company bought the site, it was told that Frito-Lay would send a tractor-trailer midday and that smaller trucks would be loaded midafternoon in anticipation of deliveries the next day, according to meeting minutes.
Instead, the large truck arrives at “various hours,” meaning the delivery trucks sometimes need to be loaded as early as 5 a.m., Bart officials told the board.
Both the planning and zoning boards met to discuss the issue on Dec. 10, when they learned that the first Frito-Lay employee arrives as early as 3 a.m. and the company’s lease doesn’t restrict its hours.
At the meeting, Zoning Administrator Steve Halleran warned that the facility’s hours need to comply with the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. restriction or face “enforcement action,” according to the minutes.
Early this week, Halleran, who also is the town administrator, expressed confidence that Bart is working to resolve the problems brought forward by neighbors, noting the company has hired Lebanon attorney Brad Atwood to represent it.
Plainfield has sent a formal letter telling Bart and Frito-Lay to operate in accordance with its zoning, but it’s unlikely the town will take either company to court as long as it appears willing to work toward a solution, he said. Halleran said he hasn’t heard complaints about the facility since the Dec. 10 meeting, and knows that Atwood has met with neighbors this week.
Atwood didn’t return calls requesting comment on the matter on Friday.
Still, neighbors say they’ve compromised enough in allowing the facility in a largely residential neighborhood.
“If I’m being 100 percent honest, I wish that wasn’t there at all,” Franklin said. “That being said, now that this is here, I’d love to see 6 to 6 enforced.”
Lillie agreed, saying that Bart needs to stick to its promises before the neighbors should be asked to compromise.
“A majority of the neighbors are digging in their heels and saying enough is enough,” he said, adding conversations have been very civil so far.
“We understand that, OK, we’ve got to deal with it. How can we all reach across the aisle to make it work for everybody?” he said.
Halleran predicts that the town’s land use boards will discuss the Bart property again either in January or February.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.