06-04-2025
'Thanks for nothing' - Goffstown ZBA grants variance for project at Manchester border
Despite strong opposition from a large contingent of Manchester residents, the Goffstown Zoning Board of Adjustment approved a variance for a proposed development with an as-yet-undetermined number of homes on land near the Queen City border.
Manchester officials and residents have kept a close eye on the project because the property is located off Riverview Park Road, with access to the proposed subdivision via Phillip Street and Joseph Street Extension — streets located in Manchester — creating a cut-through in what has historically been a very quiet neighborhood off Goffstown Road near Mount Calvary Cemetery.
'So we're screwed,' yelled an unidentified female from the back of the Mildred Stark Room in Goffstown Town Hall, following a 3-2 vote by the zoning board to approve a variance request for the project. 'Thanks for nothing. You don't have to live there, do you?'
'The Planning Board is your next visit,' answered Goffstown zoning board Chairman Len Stuart, who voted against the variance request. 'It doesn't end here.'
The Dubay Group Inc. and Allard Revocable Trust went before the ZBA seeking a variance to subdivide a property to build single-family homes within the Industrial Zone, which is not permitted per Section 3.11 of the Goffstown Zoning Ordinance. The application suggests 34 homes, but Doug MacGuire, vice president of the Dubay Group, said the plan submitted is conceptual and the exact number of homes involved in the project has yet to be finalized.
Attorney Daniel Mueller of Cronin, Bisson and Zalinsky, representing the Dubay Group, said he hoped to 'focus' the discussion at the public hearing on the request.
'The general conceptual plan that has been presented, given some of the turnout for the prior meetings, has generated a lot of feedback or interest from abutters as well as officials from other towns,' Mueller said. 'We're only asking for the use variance. So the issue, basically, tonight is whether this property, which is zoned industrial right now, my client is asking that it be allowed to be used for residential, and we're asking for this board to grant a variance for that purpose and that purpose alone.
'What I'm not here about tonight is whether this is going to be a 34-lot, 2- lot, 10-lot subdivision — that issue will be for the Planning Board.'
The Planning Board will also approve — or reject — which road will access the property ultimately, and how that will be accomplished, and what improvements may or may not need to be made, Mueller said.
RSA 36:54-58 states if a project has been determined to have regional impact — which this one has — abutting communities and the regional planning commission will be given abutter status and an opportunity to weigh in on the project.
Manchester residents on Phillips Street, Joseph Street Extension and Eugene Street filled the Mildred Stark Room to speak out against the project.
Jeannette Harper of Joseph Street Extension voiced concerns about traffic coming from Goffstown Road.
'If you leave or try to leave our neighborhood anytime from about, 7:30 to 9 o'clock in the morning, good luck,' Harper said. 'It's actually a very scary situation, because people drive, well, I hate to say it, but the people coming from Goffstown drive pretty fast and the way that the street is set up, it's almost, it's like, almost like a blind area. The traffic situation is huge.'
Mike Hamilton of Eugene Street wondered if the developer doesn't get the variance, will they go through with a different project instead.
'I don't appreciate the angle ... it almost seems like, if they don't get their variance, they're saying, 'what could come down the road', right?' Hamilton said. 'I kind of take that as a little bit of, if we don't get what we want, we're just going to go in a different way.
'I don't believe it is in the best interest to give them their variance,' Hamilton said.
Susan Lamontagne of Joseph Street Extension had a simple question.
'The owner of the property in question is Goffstown — it's Goffstown land,' Lamontagne said. 'The property is in Goffstown. How did Philips Street and Joseph Street Extension get involved in this to begin with? Why are we here?'
'Those streets dead end at the property line — as it is they're the only access to that portion of the property,' said Stuart. 'You're here because the property is in Goffstown and they're asking for the variance.'
'We're here to determine one thing — if we're gonna allow them to do residential,' said ZBA Vice Chairman Denise Langley. 'That's all we do. All we're here to do is determine if we're gonna allow an industrial lot to be able to have residential on it.'
Langley made a motion to approve the variance request, which Stuart opposed.
'By and large it's in the middle of an industrial zone, and you're basically plopping a residential use in the middle of an industrial zone,' Stuart said. 'To me that's spot zoning.'
The project will now head to the Goffstown Planning Board for review at a future date.
