Friends of Greensboro Rd Hanover NH
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Summary: Please help save our neighborhood! Greensboro Road Hanover NH has been approved for a Mega Construction that will forever change the character of our Neighborhood.
More Detail:
Please help save our neighborhood. The Greensboro Rd neighborhood in Hanover is under attack. A mega-church just received approval from the Hanover Zoning Board to construct a 21,000 SF building with a 113 space parking lot at 28-32 Greensboro (the old farmhouse and field just West of Velvet Rocks Dr). We need to raise at least $35,000 by April 27 for legal fees in order to appeal this decision
If the Zoning Board’s decision is allowed to stand, the precedent will be established, and the impacts will be felt all over town. Any organization or business could buy up a couple of houses in any area and build whatever size building they want, and the neighbors will be powerless to stop them. Don’t be fooled into thinking this only happens because there is a large lot available - the church put together 4 contiguous lots to make the proposal!
Additionally, if this massive development goes forward, the character of the area around Greensboro Rd will be changed forever, making it much easier for the next large scale development to get approved. There will be no grounds to stop a large development in any of the other open lands along Greensboro Rd, Etna Rd, even Trescott Rd because they will all be able to point to this “mega-church” as part of what now defines the character of the area.
The church bought this property a few years ago from the heirs of a man who had lived there for 50+ years and maintained it as a working farm and then as open space. They subsequently bought two adjacent parcels and have proposed a mega-church development. The picture above shows the existing buildings and driveways in red, and the proposed church, driveways and parking lots in blue.
The church first applied for the zoning permits needed in the spring of 2018, and after 5 public hearings and 2 deliberative sessions, the Zoning Board weighed all the evidence and turned the proposal down. The rejection was based on the Board’s findings that the church would have a serious negative impact on the character of the area due to the increased traffic, the lights in the parking lot, the noise generated, and the general increase in activity and commotion that is simply not appropriate for a residential area.
The church appealed and brought in an out of town lawyer to represent them. The entire focus of the second hearing was the church’s threat to sue the town for religious discrimination, if they didn’t get their way. No new evidence was introduced, and the Board determined again that the development would negatively impact the neighborhood. But, this time, under threat of being sued and labeled as bigots, the Board caved. They granted the approval with the condition that occupancy of the building would be “limited” to 300 instead of the 400 the church originally requested. Obviously, this minor reduction does very little to reduce the impacts on the neighborhood - the size of the building and parking lot remain the same, and nothing will prevent the church from coming back in a few years and asking to increase that limit to 400 or beyond.
The neighborhood was originally open to the thought of a church on the property, until they revealed the full extent of their plans. This is not a “typical New England church”! The building is 21,000 SF - more than 2 ½ times larger than the Etna Church/Trumbull Hall building. The parking lot is for 113 spaces - almost an acre of pavement, larger than the Co-op or Ray School parking lots! And, the parking lot will be lighted.
Of course, this amount of traffic on this road will cause significant problems and safety concerns. The church is expected to generate over 200 vehicle trips. People have wrongly assumed that that will only be on Sunday mornings, which would be bad enough, but there is nothing in what the church said in their application, or what the Board allowed, that limits them to just Sunday AM activities. A quick look at their calendar shows all sorts of activities at other days and times - prayer breakfasts, evening meeting, Saturday activities, etc, all things they do without a building! Imagine what they will do with a building! This church intends to be a “hub church” for training other pastors who would then go out and plant congregations in other parts of the “Gospel-parched” northeast. Their calendar shows conferences - some for youth, some for adults, where they expect attendees from all over New England. And of course, weddings, funerals, holiday services will all fill the building to capacity.
Greensboro Rd is used extensively by people of all ages, bikers, joggers, roller bladers, dog walkers, and has no sidewalks for the majority of its length. The thought that 100+ cars could all converge on this property in a very short period of time is inconceivable, and terrifying. Sunday morning would be bad enough, but at the times when the road is busiest such as AM and PM “rush hour” is going to be a nightmare. If anyone has ever seen the line of cars that follow the school bus down Greensboro Rd every morning, imagine that 100 cars (or even 50, or 20, or 10) are stacked up coming from Rt 120 and trying to make a left hand turn into the church driveway while the flow of traffic is heading toward 120. It’s not a question of if there will be an accident, it’s a question of when!
At the same time the Board approved the project, they refused to reconsider their decision regarding the wetlands and drainage issues. The current proposal includes almost an acre of paved surfaces, and 60,000 + SF of impervious surfaces. This is a neighborhood that has experienced increasingly devastating flooding in recent years as a result of increased development, despite the fact that all of the developments supposedly were engineered to have no impact on storm water run off, wetland etc. Clearly something in the calculations that the engineers provide and the ZBA relies on does not work. The neighborhood expected the ZBA to protect the wetlands, protect the ecologically sensitive Mink Brook corridor, and protect the homeowners in the area from increased risk of catastrophic flood damage, and the ZBA let us down.
There are significant issues with the church’s wetlands and stormwater plans. In an effort to minimize the amount of area they needed wetlands permits for, they claimed that one large wetland area was actually two smaller ones, each of which individually is below the threshold requiring a permit. Additionally, when they did their storm water runoff calculations, they included the impact of that wetland in their “pre-development” calculations, and then for some reason mysteriously excluded it in their “post-development” calculations. No explanation was given for why the pre- and post- calculations shouldn’t be based on the same conditions. Of course, we can all assume what the explanation is!
This proposed mega-development impacts so many people in so many ways. If you care about safe roads for biking and walking, you should be outraged. If you care about protecting wetlands and environmentally sensitive lands and wildlife, you should be outraged. If you care about living in a quiet residential neighborhood where you can peacefully co-exist and not be invaded by 300+ people on a regular basis, you should be outraged.
The Greensboro Road neighbors intend to fight this development with every ounce of our energy. We are asking for your financial support to help us make sure that it is a fair fight.
Thank you
Valley News article April 3 2019
Valley News Article March 27 2019
Valley News article March 13 2019
More Detail:
Please help save our neighborhood. The Greensboro Rd neighborhood in Hanover is under attack. A mega-church just received approval from the Hanover Zoning Board to construct a 21,000 SF building with a 113 space parking lot at 28-32 Greensboro (the old farmhouse and field just West of Velvet Rocks Dr). We need to raise at least $35,000 by April 27 for legal fees in order to appeal this decision
If the Zoning Board’s decision is allowed to stand, the precedent will be established, and the impacts will be felt all over town. Any organization or business could buy up a couple of houses in any area and build whatever size building they want, and the neighbors will be powerless to stop them. Don’t be fooled into thinking this only happens because there is a large lot available - the church put together 4 contiguous lots to make the proposal!
Additionally, if this massive development goes forward, the character of the area around Greensboro Rd will be changed forever, making it much easier for the next large scale development to get approved. There will be no grounds to stop a large development in any of the other open lands along Greensboro Rd, Etna Rd, even Trescott Rd because they will all be able to point to this “mega-church” as part of what now defines the character of the area.
The church bought this property a few years ago from the heirs of a man who had lived there for 50+ years and maintained it as a working farm and then as open space. They subsequently bought two adjacent parcels and have proposed a mega-church development. The picture above shows the existing buildings and driveways in red, and the proposed church, driveways and parking lots in blue.
The church first applied for the zoning permits needed in the spring of 2018, and after 5 public hearings and 2 deliberative sessions, the Zoning Board weighed all the evidence and turned the proposal down. The rejection was based on the Board’s findings that the church would have a serious negative impact on the character of the area due to the increased traffic, the lights in the parking lot, the noise generated, and the general increase in activity and commotion that is simply not appropriate for a residential area.
The church appealed and brought in an out of town lawyer to represent them. The entire focus of the second hearing was the church’s threat to sue the town for religious discrimination, if they didn’t get their way. No new evidence was introduced, and the Board determined again that the development would negatively impact the neighborhood. But, this time, under threat of being sued and labeled as bigots, the Board caved. They granted the approval with the condition that occupancy of the building would be “limited” to 300 instead of the 400 the church originally requested. Obviously, this minor reduction does very little to reduce the impacts on the neighborhood - the size of the building and parking lot remain the same, and nothing will prevent the church from coming back in a few years and asking to increase that limit to 400 or beyond.
The neighborhood was originally open to the thought of a church on the property, until they revealed the full extent of their plans. This is not a “typical New England church”! The building is 21,000 SF - more than 2 ½ times larger than the Etna Church/Trumbull Hall building. The parking lot is for 113 spaces - almost an acre of pavement, larger than the Co-op or Ray School parking lots! And, the parking lot will be lighted.
Of course, this amount of traffic on this road will cause significant problems and safety concerns. The church is expected to generate over 200 vehicle trips. People have wrongly assumed that that will only be on Sunday mornings, which would be bad enough, but there is nothing in what the church said in their application, or what the Board allowed, that limits them to just Sunday AM activities. A quick look at their calendar shows all sorts of activities at other days and times - prayer breakfasts, evening meeting, Saturday activities, etc, all things they do without a building! Imagine what they will do with a building! This church intends to be a “hub church” for training other pastors who would then go out and plant congregations in other parts of the “Gospel-parched” northeast. Their calendar shows conferences - some for youth, some for adults, where they expect attendees from all over New England. And of course, weddings, funerals, holiday services will all fill the building to capacity.
Greensboro Rd is used extensively by people of all ages, bikers, joggers, roller bladers, dog walkers, and has no sidewalks for the majority of its length. The thought that 100+ cars could all converge on this property in a very short period of time is inconceivable, and terrifying. Sunday morning would be bad enough, but at the times when the road is busiest such as AM and PM “rush hour” is going to be a nightmare. If anyone has ever seen the line of cars that follow the school bus down Greensboro Rd every morning, imagine that 100 cars (or even 50, or 20, or 10) are stacked up coming from Rt 120 and trying to make a left hand turn into the church driveway while the flow of traffic is heading toward 120. It’s not a question of if there will be an accident, it’s a question of when!
At the same time the Board approved the project, they refused to reconsider their decision regarding the wetlands and drainage issues. The current proposal includes almost an acre of paved surfaces, and 60,000 + SF of impervious surfaces. This is a neighborhood that has experienced increasingly devastating flooding in recent years as a result of increased development, despite the fact that all of the developments supposedly were engineered to have no impact on storm water run off, wetland etc. Clearly something in the calculations that the engineers provide and the ZBA relies on does not work. The neighborhood expected the ZBA to protect the wetlands, protect the ecologically sensitive Mink Brook corridor, and protect the homeowners in the area from increased risk of catastrophic flood damage, and the ZBA let us down.
There are significant issues with the church’s wetlands and stormwater plans. In an effort to minimize the amount of area they needed wetlands permits for, they claimed that one large wetland area was actually two smaller ones, each of which individually is below the threshold requiring a permit. Additionally, when they did their storm water runoff calculations, they included the impact of that wetland in their “pre-development” calculations, and then for some reason mysteriously excluded it in their “post-development” calculations. No explanation was given for why the pre- and post- calculations shouldn’t be based on the same conditions. Of course, we can all assume what the explanation is!
This proposed mega-development impacts so many people in so many ways. If you care about safe roads for biking and walking, you should be outraged. If you care about protecting wetlands and environmentally sensitive lands and wildlife, you should be outraged. If you care about living in a quiet residential neighborhood where you can peacefully co-exist and not be invaded by 300+ people on a regular basis, you should be outraged.
The Greensboro Road neighbors intend to fight this development with every ounce of our energy. We are asking for your financial support to help us make sure that it is a fair fight.
Thank you
Valley News article April 3 2019
Valley News Article March 27 2019
Valley News article March 13 2019
Fundraising team (3)
Greensboro Road Neighbors
Organizer
Hanover, NH
Jeff Acker
Beneficiary
Lara Acker
Team member