The soil transfer that took place on Leavitt Bay would not be permitted in neighboring states.
Planning Board members will now have the final word on Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plans.
Town says it cannot find the letter that Select Board member Chris Seamans referred to at a ZBA appeal hearing last month.
Appellants say the board’s January 3 hearing was “replete with deficiencies.”
Critics say the rewrites are regressive and will create an environmental loophole.
The Fire Chief is not the only one that Effingham’s Planning Board wants to eliminate from required reviews of plans to handle and store hazardous materials.
The Planning Board wants the Chief removed from zoning’s chain of oversight in regulating potentially hazardous substances.
A letter is said to explain why the town withdrew a zoning enforcement action against Meena’s convenience store last year.
The attorney for the abutters says the next step would be to file for reconsideration at the ZBA.
A major environmental case grinds on.
Effingham is having a “Rashomon” moment.
Error in notifying neighboring towns is cited.
Members of the public say the discussion isn’t finished.
Transfer appears to have been permissible under state law.
Abutters say the former Boyle’s Market store lost its grandfathered status after Meena kept it closed for more than two years.
An independent review of the document used to approve the Meena LLC gas station raises questions.
“OWL” is advancing the water protection debate and advocating for the homeowners behind the legal appeals in the Effingham gas station case.
December 6 is the new date, allowing time to notify Lakes Region Planning Commission and the nine additional towns affected by the development.
October 25 hearing will focus on claims the Planning Board violated the zoning ordinance when it granted conditional approval in July.
Abutters say Effingham’s Planning Board violated the zoning ordinance when it conditionally approved the controversial development.
“The Planning Board appears to have erroneously believed that because Meena received a variance for a gas station…approving the site plan application was inevitable, regardless of environmental concerns.”
Michael Cahalane tells Effingham’s Planning Board there was a “consensus” to allow the work to proceed without an approved site plan.
A public hearing will take place on Monday, August 7, to address issues raised in the wake of the board’s conditional approval of the development.
Effingham’s Select Board says there is “nothing to substantiate” one of the items in the Planning Board’s “Findings of Fact” that was used as the basis of its July 11 gas station decision.
Addressing the location of the diesel pump and making changes in the design of the bioretention basin are among tasks that must be completed before a final sign-off.
Conditions that will be attached to the approval have not been made public.
Newly released to the public, letters asking Effingham to deny the Meena gas station application come from an array of people and organizations.
Calls Meena LLC “arrogant” in its attitude toward scientific concerns.
Planning Board members seem to agree that conditions would need to be met before they would sign off on the plan.
“This affects you, it affects me, and this affects the future the water in this town,” said teenager Stella Lunt, who lives nearby.
Effingham’s June 13 hearing revealed what the Planning Board has been missing for the past two years.
“We can’t just arbitrarily decide that we think this is a bad idea and refuse it,” said Effingham Planning Board Chair George Bull.
The board has a legal responsibility to protect the public by making a reasonable and lawful decision based on facts—all of the facts.
After his credibility is questioned, the geoscientist identifies four critical ways in which the plan fails to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare.
The developer calls it the “best” plan. Critics promise a rebuttal.
Nate Williams and Michael Cahalane, whose votes on the ZBA helped Meena LLC obtain a zoning variance for a gas station, will now deliberate the company’s Site Plan Application on the Planning Board.
Days away from a hearing, there is still no unified Site Plan Application for Meena’s Development of Regional Impact.
Impact of zoning officer’s ruling remains one of a number of unknowns.
Planning Board Chair George Bull calls for a retraction of a ruling by the zoning officer, while a board source says Meena may have submitted materials directly to the independent advisor.
The Conway developer’s decision to close the convenience store after buying it more than two years ago has voided its legal status as a protected non-conforming use.
Newly released public documents show the company’s failure to consider zoning regulations led to a series of missteps that stalled their plan.
Newly elected Victoria Garceau has bowed-out, according to the Conway Daily Sun.
Ossipee resident Leona Simon’s opposition to the Effingham gas station proposal was based on personal experience.
High school student Stella Lunt of Ossipee is learning a lot from the Meena gas station case.
Whether Effingham’s Planning Board will accept the material is unclear, given its September cut-off date and a court-ordered stay of the proceedings.
Effingham’s Planning Board will have new leadership when it resumes consideration of the controversial gas station plan.
The ruling comes as officials in neighboring towns say they want the additional environmental assurances a Special Use Permit would require.
The ZBA on February 1 will continue deliberating whether a Planning Board decision in the Meena case violated the Zoning Ordinance.
An Effingham Planning Board decision inequitably favors a Conway developer and deprives the board and the community of required environmental information.
Discussion will continue on February 1.
Appeals of the Planning Board’s decision regarding the need for a Special Use Permit are pending with the ZBA and Superior Court.
Meena LLC’s need for a Special Use Permit is once again the focus.
Gas station technology has improved, but that doesn’t change anything about the original basis for the ordinance.
Concerns about protecting drinking water are rising, and local candidates have taken notice.
Hearing is continued as Effingham’s Planning Board is told to file a certified record of the case’s proceedings in response to a lawsuit.
Effingham Planning Board is told to provide the court with a certified record of the proceedings.
An August decision about a Special Use Permit is now in court.
“It (spilled gas) is going to end up here,” said Newton, pointing to Ossipee Lake at Thursday night’s public presentation.
It’s not clear whether Dr. Robert Newton will be allowed to present his research on the proposed gas station site at next week’s Effingham Planning Board hearing, but he will be at Runnells Hall, and on Zoom, this Thursday night to speak and answer questions.
Ossipee and Effingham petitioners want to know if their water is safe to drink.
Meena LLC cannot use DOT’s abutting property to meet its regulatory requirements for gas station runoff.
More than 100 people who were prepared to have a discussion see red after public comment is barred and the proceeding is postponed until October.
Effingham’s Planning Board should deny Meena LLC’s Development of Regional Impact application when it meets on Monday night.
In a late Friday letter to the Planning Board, the company’s attorney said Ossipee Aquifer expert Dr. Bob Newton should not be allowed to speak, and a petition calling for a more complete independent technical review of the plan “has no bearing on the application.”
In advance of a special August 22 hearing in Effingham, two State Representatives last week asked the Department of Transportation to deny the use of State property for gas station runoff.
“The Ossipee Aquifer can’t move. A gas station can be sited in a different place,” says the head of national non-profit American Groundwater Trust.
An expected outcome at a sparsely attended meeting.
Gas station opponents say Meena LLC cannot meet the requirements of an important environmental regulation.
As some previous issues are addressed, further complications arise.
Conservation groups scrambled to spread the word after the Planning Board Chair said members needed time to review an independent professional evaluation of Meena’s newly submitted materials.
An unresolved waiver request, the need for a Special Use Permit, and a nine-town petition are likely to be on the agenda when the Effingham gas station hearings reconvene on Thursday, July 7.
More than 500 people from nine towns say they want Effingham’s planners to obtain a full, not partial, independent review of the Meena LLC gas station Site Plan Application.
It may not be as visible as our gorgeous surroundings, but clean drinking water is critical to our way of life and our tourism economy. A new video explains.
Demands that the company be held accountable are rooted in fear that last year’s illegal excavation might have caused naphthalene and other petroleum contaminants to migrate to the groundwater.
The town’s Planning Board will now determine whether the controversial “Development of Regional Impact” is a threat to the public’s health, safety and welfare.
Meena LLC has a variance to build a gas station but needs a Special Use Permit to operate it, according to Concord-based Northpoint Engineering. Meena’s attorney says that’s “legally incorrect.”
Ossipee’s endorsement of an Effingham gas station struck some as an outlier decision, but it’s part of a years-long pattern.
Effingham’s Planning Board has continued the gas station hearing to July 7 as attorneys for the applicant and abutters debate Northpoint Engineering’s conclusion that a Special Use Permit is required.
Concord-based Northpoint Engineering’s findings are consistent with local assessments that the Meena LLC site plan is insufficient, and that an Environmental Impact Analysis is needed.
The surprise decision to support a commercial business in a neighboring town has abutters angry and others wondering why.
Acting on a recommendation by Lakes Region Planning Commission, Effingham’s Planning Board will have the Meena LLC site plan application vetted by a professional engineering firm before hearings continue.
Citing concerns about water quality, town officials plan to argue the Meena LLC site plan application should not be approved.
New and improved equipment and DES tank permits are only half of the story. It’s the other half that Effingham officials need to address.
Exercising their recently-granted abutter status, Tamworth joins a growing number of towns expressing concerns about the proposed development’s environmental impact.
Anticipating a crowd, the 7 p.m. meeting will be held at Town Hall.
Freedom, Ossipee, Tamworth and Madison are among the communities receiving notice that the Effingham gas station proposal is a “Development of Regional Impact.”
The Conway Daily Sun’s reporting on last week’s Effingham Planning Board hearing.
Planning Board votes 5-2 to invite neighboring communities and the Lakes Region Planning Commission to help deliberate the controversial development.
Regional impact and a recusal request are likely to be on the agenda.
Attorneys faced-off Friday in an initial court hearing on the proposed gas station on the Effingham-Ossipee border.
The reaction to Professor Bob Newton’s video shows the public understands towns must look beyond their borders to ensure the protection of their community’s drinking water.
A vote by the Effingham Planning Board to accept the application as complete means public debate will start on February 24.
Noted geoscientist says pumping gas at the site of a former gravel pit in Effingham could threaten the wells of dozens of Ossipee property owners.
After three postponements, the Effingham Planning Board is scheduled to review Meena LLC’s site plan application on February 3.
Some New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken. Here’s one we plan to keep.
It’s a question we hear every day. This is what we think, and why we believe you should be concerned.
Meanwhile, opponents have filed an appeal with State Superior Court.
Two days before Effingham’s Planning Board is scheduled to conduct a site plan review of the proposal to convert Boyle’s Market into a gas station, the ZBA will consider an appeal to reverse its approval of the project and re-hear the application.
Local residents want Effingham’s Select Board to determine whether the ZBA erred when it approved a variance to pump gas at Boyle’s Market.
On a 4-1 vote, the ZBA last week granted relief to a Conway businessman for his proposal to pump gas at Boyle’s Market, which is in the Groundwater Protection District.
As Effingham’s ZBA prepares to address that question, we offer our opinion.
Tuesday’s ZBA meeting didn’t produce a decision on the controversial project, but it did answer a number of outstanding questions.
Boyle’s Market on Route 25 closed its gas station six years ago. A new owner wants to start pumping again and has already installed the tanks.