More Londonderry thievery

[Pat McCotter]

Governor needs to get involved on airport road

Wednesday, June 16, 2004
OUR VIEW
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A 225-acre marsh in Londonderry, N.H., won a temporary reprieve from plans to drain it. But state officials still have only 45 days to come up with a plan to compensate landowners along the marsh's edge.
State officials have had 50 years to implement such a plan. Will another 45 days make a difference?

New Hampshire Fish and Game's 50-year leases to flood the land at the margins of Little Cohas Marsh with a dam have expired. Now, with plans to construct an access road to Manchester Airport through the area, landowners are seeking fair market value for their property. A buildable house lot on a road in Londonderry goes for about $100,000.

The state had planned to draw down water from the marsh but advocates for the marsh as a wildlife sanctuary have objected to the plan. Last-minute negotiations with the landowners resulted in the 45-day delay.

While there are uncertainties involved -- it is unclear just how much land will become buildable after the water drawdown -- the state should have had a solution in place long ago. One reasonable solution is for the state to purchase the land from the property owners at fair market value.

It's a prime example of bureaucratic inertia -- doing nothing about a problem everyone knows is coming until a crisis develops.

The access road to Manchester Airport is needed. The property owners have a right to be able to use their land or receive fair compensation for it.

But the state no longer even has valid permits to build the access road. The Department of Transportation failed to meet the March 29 deadline to purchase the 480 acres of swamp and surrounding uplands needed under the permits as mitigation for construction of the road.

Clearly, what's needed here is for Gov. Craig Benson to step in and work out a solution that gets the road built, preserves as much marshland as possible and satisfies the property owners. It's something that should have been done years ago, but wasn't. Now would be a good time to start.

[APB]

The property has about 1 foot of water on it and it is preety much flat and not a lake.  I bought my land thnking that down the road my children would have an opportunity to build a house on either side of me. I am on a corner lot and have two other seperate street address's to my property.

I agree, that no one buys a piece of property with water on it, unless you like the view. I knew that the lease was going to expire and that I would have future plans for the land. Since the begginning of this mess, I have been telling the state, that my land is not for sale.

Not only are they taking my 3 acres of manmade wetlands, but they are also taking my upland.  Many of the home owners are in the same position.  The bottom line here is that I want their water of my land and I will do with it, as I please and not the government.

[KBCraig]

The bottom line here is that I want their water of my land and I will do with it, as I please and not the government.

You sound like our kind of people, APB! 

[APB]

Thanks, I am trying to do the right thing. To protect the interest/future of my family and other land owners from future land robberies. I have a law firm from Manchester (Wiggins & Nourie) handling my case. I have other land owners jumping on board.

[Dreepa]

What would they do if you brough a couple of hundred yards of fill dirt in?

Hmmm that would be interesting.......


This is stealing.....$10K... that is a joke.

[Michael Fisher]

For a while now, they've been trying to use "planning violations" as an excuse to take this business:

Planning board vents at AAMCO operator 
Business run without proper permit 
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051020/REPOSITORY/510200441/1031

We should support him as well.  He has a right to run his business without permission from the government.

[EZPass]

Land is worth $250,000 an acre in Londonderry and similar towns so THIS IS ROBBERY.

[/quote]

Check out this property on his town's website assessor office files. ?In '05, his property was assessed at 201,700 for the building and 97,100 for the 6 acres of land. ?(I guess the 250,000 per acre above may be a little overstated).

If the house lot (1 acre) is worth approximately $95,000, then the 4.9 acres underwater must be worth $2,100. ?So, if the state pays the owner $10,000 for something worth $2,100, some may view this as a windfall to the owner. ?In Merrimack, this happened 3 years ago and was found lawful. ?This owner may not want his land seized, but the issue doesn't seem to be one of fair compensation. ???

When the arguement becomes financially motivated then it's simply a battle of assessors. ?While sympathetic, this is a case that's flawed to use as a flagship. ?There must be a lot of better examples to use re: inappropriate land seizure by state government.

[GT]

If he doesn't want to sell his land he should not be forced. The airport access road is miles away from his property.

Why does the state need to seize hundreds of acres of land???

[AlanM]

If he doesn't want to sell his land he should not be forced. The airport access road is miles away from his property.

Totally agree!!!!
I am sick and tired of Gov dictates. 

[AlanM]

Shorty wouldn't like it either.

[FTL_Ian]

Why does the state need to seize hundreds of acres of land???

Because they can.  And they will continue to do so until we put a stop to it.

[APB]

Keep in mind, that the value figures are at 85 -90% of the assesed values from the town. I beleive that the state requires all city and towns to be at 100% by, I think 2006. 1 acre of developable land sold for $170.000 a few months ago here in Londonderry. We have a open space program here, were the town bought up properties to slow down growth.

They state says that my land can not be developed. Tell that to the residents in East Cambridge Mass, where I grew up. All those buildings by the Gallery mall were filled in years ago and built on marsh land. They are selling for millions.

Are far as filling my land with dirt, I would have to pull a fill and dredge permit. I can not touch the land, since it has already be taken and I am taken the battle to court. My land is a manmade wetland, which the state knows that if the dam is taken out; than, they will be proved wrong. I had my property appraised within the last 2 months at $4000.000. I am waiting for my lawyer to have a company come out and appraise it as buildable land. I have sewarge and water lines available if I want to hook up.

I am a proud AMERICAN and I beleive that it will be a cold day in hell before I let them just take it without a fight.

[Pat McCotter]

If he doesn't want to sell his land he should not be forced. The airport access road is miles away from his property.

Why does the state need to seize hundreds of acres of land???

Cause the Federal Government said so.

Bob Barry, who's managing the mitigation for the Department of Transportation, said that the federal environmental impact statement for the new road required it.

750 acres of mitigation land for how much road acreage?

And the land was leased for 50 years; the lease is expired.

[Dreepa]

If he doesn't want to sell his land he should not be forced. The airport access road is miles away from his property.

Why does the state need to seize hundreds of acres of land???

Is there any sort of public protest being set up?

[Pat McCotter]

Another article I found

"That acreage [800 acres] will compensate for the 12 acres of environmental damage the road causes."

http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20041222/NH_005.htm

Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Highway still lacks permit
By Chris Dornin
Staff writer

LONDONDERRY -- Approval last week of the corridor for a Manchester Airport access road gives the state Department of Transportation ammunition in its effort to regain an environmental permit for the project. No groundbreaking can start without that document.

A corridor selection committee of three executive councilors agreed the road will start at the Everett Turnpike in Bedford, continue east across the Merrimack River and Brown Avenue, and pass through Londonderry into the airport from the south. The committee also ratified its 800-acre land protection package, with most of the property in Londonderry.

Before construction can start, the Department of Environmental Services must agree to a stewardship plan for Little Cohas Marsh and other conservation land the state has pledged to protect by eminent domain or land-use easements. That acreage will compensate for the 12 acres of environmental damage the road causes.

"This decision (on the corridor and mitigation package) should make it easier to get our environmental permit amended," said Robert Barry, director of the Bureau of Municipal Highways. "The new one should be just about identical to the old permit. It's essentially the same mitigation area."

Barry's department lost its environmental permit in April. His agency failed to buy up all the land around Little Cohas Marsh before the Fish and Game Department lost its legal right to maintain a dam at the north end. Meeting that deadline was one of the permit conditions.

Londonderry Budget Committee member Jim Finch has long advocated developing the north end of town in an environmentally responsible way. Town leaders are planning a major industrial and office park on 1,300 acres now vacant or sparsely developed. Finch attended the recent vote of the three executive councilors.

"This will conserve some important open space in town," Finch said. "And when that road comes in, it means good access for our industrial area around Manchester Airport. That's the No. 1 benefit. It's been a long, painful approval process."

It may not be over. Bob Norman of the Sierra Club said the environmental threat to those 1,300 acres has gone from bad to worse and that the state should look at other routes for the road.

Executive Councilor Peter Spaulding has said the state should have planned an airport access road starting from Exit 5 on Interstate 93 and cutting across north Londonderry. Now, Spaulding said he's sick of delays. He has threatened to remove his support for the project unless construction begins within a year.

Transportation Commissioner Carol Murray has promised her department will manage the wildlife habitat, at least until it finds a better private or governmental group to do the job.

Executive Councilor David Wheeler vowed last spring to veto the project unless the state allowed hunting on the land it buys. It accommodated him.

"Anything we buy outright is going to allow hunting in accordance with state law," Wheeler said. "I want everyone to use state land, not just hikers and lookers."