If you’re scoring at home, the ball is in the business owner’s court.
The residents – Carol Egan and Katherine Shamel – took their shot at a recent Chichester Select Board meeting. They read their statements after staying silent for maybe two years, seeking relief from the thumping and bumping of dump-trucks and those annoying beeps they emit while backing up.
They said Mike Hague is running his construction company, New Hampshire Groundscapes, at 73 King Road – the same street on which the women live – in a zoned residential area.
Then, after the duo had read their thoughts at the Board Meeting, a funny thing happened on the way to a long, drawn-out, small-town fight. The noise from the construction site stopped. Just like that. Neither woman has heard anything for weeks.
“It has definitely quieted down,” Egan said. “It’s a non-issue right now, but it was an issue for years.”
So what’s going on?
Kristy Willey, the town’s administrative assistant, said Hague at one time owned a house on the large lot, and then subdivided the land into two additional lots. What’s left at 73 King Road is an eight acre parcel with a dirt lot right off the street, a dirt road leading back through the woods to a garage, which, Willey said, Hague apparently uses to store materials for his business.
Once the land was split, Willey said, Hague needed a permit for his landscaping business.
“While he was living there, he started a landscaping business, which grew over time,” Willey wrote in an email. “The town was not aware of this. He then sold his house but kept the two other lots.”
Willey said Hague has a building permit for his under-construction home, but he still lacks the authority to run a business there.
“He plans on applying for a home occupation, which is the only way to run a business in the residential area,” Willey said. “Until then, the building inspector and I told him he cannot utilize his garage for business purposes.”
Reached by phone, Hague would not confirm that at one time he ran his construction company from his home lot, down the road from neighbors, saying only that he’s rightfully building two houses on that spot.
His business website lists its address as 73 King Road. Other businesses exist nearby, including a consulting company and an auto repair shop, both on lots that include a home.
Hague’s approval for a business permit could come with stipulations, the town’s way of balancing a business’s right to exist with the nearby residents’ right to enjoy their property.
Egan is the optimist, excited over the prospect of guidelines limiting Hague’s ability to make noise.
“It would be wonderful to have that,” she said. “I hope it continues and it all gets resolved.”
For her part, Shamel, like Egan, never bothered to get her gripes down on paper. In past years, neighbors shied away from submitting concerns in writing. As Egan noted, “It was hard for neighbors, because you don’t want to be the bad guy.”
Shamel is more worried about the future. She fears Hague will receive a permit to run his business in the neighborhood and even the enforcement of any pre-conditions established could be difficult to enforce.
For his part, Hague said he wants to be a good neighbor.
In a second short phone interview, Hague said, “I’m not trying to cause problems with neighbors.”
These days, Shamel and Egan’s windows are open. They hear birds, not beeps.
But Shamel’s frustration simmered to the surface in the form of sarcasm. She’s had it with this issue.
“The selectmen said I can do anything I want with my property,” Shamel said. “I try to be courteous, but I might start mowing my lawn at 6 a.m and hope they hear it. The Board of Selectmen said I can do anything I want.”