{"id":7417,"date":"2018-01-31T15:10:54","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T20:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/?p=7417"},"modified":"2018-01-31T15:10:54","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T20:10:54","slug":"new-boston-plays-whack-a-mole-with-private-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/2018\/01\/31\/new-boston-plays-whack-a-mole-with-private-property\/","title":{"rendered":"New Boston plays \u201cWhack-a-Mole\u201d with Private Property"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ed Naile<\/em><\/p>\n

As New Boston plays \u201cWhack-a-Mole\u201d with a commercial property that has been in existence since June 1965 as a repair garage\/towing service, now deemed a \u201cjunkyard\u201d in order to strip its vested property rights, a few questions pop up.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuke\u2019s Garage,\u201d the business in question, was issued a summons in 1970, by New Boston Police, for having more than two unregistered cars parked there. It turns out the offending vehicles were awaiting insurance company clearance for being towed by Duke\u2019s Garage. Residential properties are restricted form having more than two unregistered vehicles. Grandfathered commercial is not subject to residential zoning even if it is in a residential area.<\/p>\n

Oops, the Town lost that argument. And in Duke\u2019s Garage\u2019s favor, a map was drawn in 1970 showing the \u201coffending vehicles.\u201d That is called a \u201cpaper trail.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1978 New Boston again took Duke\u2019s Garage to Goffstown District Court for unlicensed vehicle problems. The document I have from that case has an X where it says – Not Guilty. <\/p>\n

Oops, egg on Town face. More paper in the paper trail.<\/p>\n

Not to be denied an opportunity to create a new policy regarding tow truck operators, a new requirement of liability insurance soon popped up. Duke\u2019s Garage had to give New Boston a certificate of insurance to continue being a towing service and impound lot. Duke\u2019s Garage towed vehicles and impounded them for the Town at the time.<\/p>\n

Duke\u2019s Garage has, to this day, a towing service. There is a ramp truck on his property right now unless the Town has taken it away as scrap. All the vehicles used in the business are registered. Duke\u2019s Garage also plows snow for the State of NH. That truck is licensed and registered. <\/p>\n

Duke\u2019s Garage has a set of what is known as \u201cRepair Plates\u201d issued by the State for moving vehicles needing repair when they are not inspected. They have been issued to Duke\u2019s Garage for years.<\/p>\n

Here is where it gets sticky \u2013 for New Boston.<\/p>\n

New Boston has a Towing Policy. You can find it here: <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newbostonnh.gov\/Pages\/NewBostonNH_Selectmen\/Towing%20Policy.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

As with most town policies \u2013 it is detailed and pretty specific. That depends of course who you are.<\/p>\n

Part of the Towing Policy requires companies towing for the Town of New Boston to have:<\/p>\n

QUALIFICATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Any towing service with at least one (1) properly equipped wrecker and a storage yard in a properly zoned area, capable of holding ten (10) or more vehicles and doing business within five (5) miles from the New Boston Town borders shall be eligible for the duty wrecker list. <\/p>\n

Duke\u2019s Garage has a ramp truck, he has a commercial driver\u2019s license, he has a grandfathered 1.5 acre lot and plenty of room to park up to ten cars. If you look at the 1970 map of his property it is apparent that he had vehicles parked there, all lined up on the left side of his property.
\nSo how does the Town of New Boston circumvent pre-existing, non-conforming uses going back long before zoning was adopted in New Boston?<\/p>\n

They can\u2019t \u2013 legally, so they insist that this property is an illegal junkyard and use junkyard statutes to strip Duke\u2019s Garage of property rights and the ability to conduct business. No ability to impound cars \u2013 no contract to tow. See how it works?<\/p>\n

Under the guise of cleaning up \u201cjunk\u201d on the property New Boston has ignored their own policy for hiring contractors who have been hauling away such \u201cjunk\u201d as the tire changing machine, a compressor, $1,600 in stainless steel sheet stock, and a personal, galvanized boat trailer \u2013 license plate still attached.<\/p>\n

The Town was supposed to give Duke\u2019s Garage an \u201cinventory list\u201d before it started using an uninsured contractor and container company to haul things away.<\/p>\n

They delivered it last week, by hand, long after most of the junk and some of Duke\u2019s personal property was relocated \u2014 to an illegal junkyard in Dunbarton.<\/p>\n

This is starting to look like New Boston has another policy called \u2014 Vexatious and Malicious.
\nThey seem to enforce that one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ed Naile As New Boston plays \u201cWhack-a-Mole\u201d with a commercial property that has been in existence since June 1965 as a repair garage\/towing service, now deemed a \u201cjunkyard\u201d in order to strip its vested property rights, a few questions pop up. \u201cDuke\u2019s Garage,\u201d the business in question, was issued a summons in 1970, by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7418,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7417\/revisions\/7418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}