The Walpolean

Walpole Planning Board Minutes

June 9, 2026

Town Hall

7pm

Roll Call: Board Present: Chair Jeff Miller, Vice-Chair Dennis Marcom, Clerk Jason Perron, Jeff Harrington, Joanna Andros, Trevor MacLachlan, Select Board Representative Steve Dalessio. Alternates Present: Travis Adams, Tom Murray.

Call to order: Mr. Miller called the meeting to order at 7 pm. A full board was present so an alternate was not needed to fill in. As residents continued to trickle in, board members twice had to go to the basement for another rack of chairs. The actual meeting started about 10 to 15 minutes later.

Minutes: Review minutes of the May 2026 meeting. Mr. Marcom made a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Mr. Harrington seconded the motion and the carried unanimously.

Old Business:

Public Hearing No. 1: 

Site Plan Application: Hubbard Farms, Jim Wilson and Mark Houghton presenters. Enlarge building at 45 Hidden Acres Lane, Town Tax Map 4, Lot 3-5 in the Rural Agriculture District, Currently the existing building is 40 feet by 60 feet Proposed is an addition of a 35 feet by 35 feet. There are five parking spaces.

Mr. Houghton showed a picture of several buildings in a row on Hidden Acres Lane. The smallest one was the building that would be enlarged. It is used so personnel can shower before and after being in any of the buildings on the property. This is a safety precaution so personnel will not take in or leave with any possible contamination. Mr. Marcom made a motion to approve Mr. Houghton’s request. Mr. Harrington seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

Public Hearing: Continued from May.

Site Plan Application: Snowplow Sales Development, Brookside Real Estate LLC Mike and Levi Hubbard, 538 Main Street, Tax Map 12, Lot 58, Commercial District. This project includes a 3,360 square-foot office and a two-story 8,000 square-foot store for snowplows sale as well as small equipment and landscaping items. The store is in the timber frame style. A warehouse will be behind the store. There will be bins with various types of soil and mulch in them along one boundary line and two larger ones for sand and salt. They will host a landscaping business. John Noonan of Fieldstone Land Consultants made the presentation.

Mr. Noonan explained that the property is located on Main Street which intersects with Route 123/12 and Upper Walpole Road. It is 75.5 acres and located in the commercial district. Besides the two buildings there will be an outdoor display area on the left as one enters the property, parking spaces on three sides of the office and on the perimeter of the parking lot. The parking lot will be asphalt. There is a wetland area off to the south that will not be touched. However, they do need and are planning on getting an Alteration of Terrain permit from the state to deal with storm water. There is an infiltration basin at the east portion of the property. Trees will be placed at the entry way and along the eastern boundary line. There will also be shrubs and flowers around the office and parking lot. Instead of a private well on the property they have decided to hook up to the local water system that runs along the western side of Route 12. That means going under Route 12, all the lighting is dark sky compliant and down lit. They have received a driveway permit from NHDOT.

John Peska, co-chair of the Walpole Conservation Commission, read a letter about their concerns on environmental impacts. It says, “A significant concern due to the slope of the parcel, is the flow of storm water into Blanchard Brook, which borders the northern boundary of the parcel flowing west through the Malnati farm and directly into the Connecticut River. Both surface and underground water flow of storm water and/or industrial spill would contaminant a valuable waterway. … Development should be restricted to area within the established 200 foot width of commercial zoning. 

“The height of the lights, their intensity, and their color, should not disturb the night vision of passing drivers, nor should they attract insects, or impact migrating birds using the Connecticut River Valley flyway.

“To conserve the rural character of our town and overall quality of life, as stated in our 2006 conservation plan for protecting drinking water, wildlife habitat, and agricultural soils are our highest priorities…The State of New Hampshire has designated the soils of the parcel being proposed for development, of local importance.”

The rest of the meeting continued with residents discussing the driveway and their safety concerns. Ms. Pauline Barnes asked the Hubbard brothers to consider changing their minds about the location of the driveway. Others did the same. The flow of cars will be cars from three different directions. Those entering Route 12 from a slip of road that come from Main Street. Then there will be cars coming from both the south and north on Route 12. Those coming from the north will have to cross two lanes of traffic to enter the site.

Mr. Miller asked Mr. Levi Hubbard how much traffic he expected. Mr. Hubbard replied there would be 15 employee cars or trucks and from 10 to 50 cars daily depending on the season.

Hank Shedd said the placement of the driveway is a challenge for drivers. They have several places to look. If a driver is coming from the slip he has to look in his rear vision mirror to check for cars coming from the south as well be aware of anyone in front of him as well as anyone turning from the northern lane to see if anyone is going to cross two lanes to enter the site. Mr. Matthias Gohl said the cars entering from the slip seem to pose the biggest problem. He could envision rear end collisions. He suggested that maybe the town should be looking at fixing that problem. The sentiment of these two people was repeated over and over.

Mr. Miller explained that he had contacted the NH Municipal Association about the matter of the driveway cut and the that the board had a problem concerning the safety of drivers considering the layout of lanes near the cut. What would happen if the Board denied the site plan due to safety concerns. “Do we have any legal standing? We have no expertise or data just our intuition?”

Mr. Jonathan Cowal, Legal Services Counsel with the Association, replied “As a general rule, you are not going to be able to deny an application due to safety concerns related to access to a state highway, especially if it based solely on intuition. Even if you have empirical evidence to support this concern. I think at best you could bring it to the attention of the state and see if they are willing to enforce anything. But even then the planning board does not have control over access to a state highway so you would not be able to deny an application based solely on concerns related to the access point on the state road.” Therefore, Mr. Miller said, if the board did deny it, the matter would most likely go to Superior Court, cost the town a great deal of money and would not win the appeal.

There being no more comments from the public Mr. Miller closed the public hearing at 7:50 pm.

Board members considered the application. Ms. Andros and Mr. Marcom both voiced their concerns about safety for drivers and hoped for another solution. Mr. Marcom summed it up by saying, “It flies in the face of common sense.” 

Mr. Perron made a motion to approve the site plan, Mr. Harrington seconded the motion and the motion was approved in a vote of 6 yeas and 1 nay.

Signage

Mr. Noonan showed a picture of the new sign. It is 4 feet by 8 feet and continues in the style of the building, timber frame. It is 20 feet high, will be placed near the entrance. Two independent sign panels advertise two services – Connecticut Valley Yard Work and Snowplow Sales. A heavy chain holds the two panels. It is made of cedar or Douglas Fir and will be lit from below.

Adjournment

Mr. Perron made a motion to adjourn. Mr. Harrington seconded the motion and the motion carried. The time was 8:15.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilou Blaine

Recording Secretary