Chichester business dispute moves to courthouse

By RAY DUCKLER

Monitor staff

Published: 09-18-2022 12:04 PM

The town’s fight with a Chichester businessman over violations at his Dover Road property has spilled from the planning board to the county courthouse.

That dispute will be the subject of a court hearing in March, when town officials and residents whose property abuts CM Truck and Trailer Sales try to force owner Calgary Mackenzie to fix numerous violations at the site that are detailed in Planning Board minutes and court documents.

The business at 46 Dover Road is storing trailers outside of the approved site plan and expanded onto land owned by abutting neighbors, including the construction of a “large earth berm, parking area and detention basin,” the town said in its lawsuit.

“Further violations include the placement of stone retaining walls, expanding the trailer parking area on the south side of the site, and wetland and wetland buffers at the northwest end of the site are filled in with parking areas or erosion stone,” the town said.

A judge will also decide if Mackenzie should pay the town’s attorney fees as well as fines of $550 a day going back to July 8, 2021, which would amount to more than $330,000 by the time the case is heard in March.

Meanwhile, Mackenzie has filed his own counter lawsuit against the town, saying the revocation of his site plan should be null and void because the town did not follow its own rules and failed to give him written notice.

He explained that after opening in 2018, sales continued to grow and then spiked during the pandemic.

During COVID, “vendor deliveries had become sporadic with little inventory arriving for weeks, and then numerous orders arriving all at once, causing CM to run out of storage space,” he wrote in his lawsuit. He worked to purchase the land next door and began storing trailers there, with plans to file amended site plans once the sale was complete, according to court documents.

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Yet, by July of 2021, town officials had enough and sent him written notice of violations at the site.

Chichester officials and the two outspoken abutters to the business have told Mackenzie to make a laundry list of changes, including:

Controlling runoff water that spreads to nearby homes; limiting noise and the use of headlights at night; approving the septic systems on the land; moving trailers stored at unauthorized locations; moving back boundaries that have crossed into abutting neighbors’ property; remove retaining walls built without documentation on Mackenzie’s site plan; and add erosion controls.

Town officials have said that they’ve grown frustrated by Mackenzie’s lack of urgency to fix the violations.

He submitted a new site plan on May 5, leading to a walk of the property on May 9. On that day, according to the minutes, Mackenzie approached planning coordinator Kristy Jobin and “asked her not to take any pictures of the property. He stated that it was rude and asked how Mrs. Jobin would like it if he went to her house to take pictures.

“Mrs. Jobin stated to Mr. Mackenzie that this was a public meeting and pictures are for reference. Also, being that it was a public meeting, there is not an expectation of privacy.”

Jobin stopped taking pictures and soon left with town officials.

Then, on June 16, Jobin mentioned that the site “still looks the same as the day the cease and desist was ordered and the applicant has made no good faith effort to bring the site into compliance.”

Mackenzie’s attorney, Pat Panciocco of Bedford, said Jobin had no business speaking since she was not a member of the planning board.

It’s unclear how much work has already been completed. A representative at CM Trucking said Mackenzie preferred not to comment.

His lawsuit states that some work was delayed because he needed input from surveyors, engineers and state environmental officials. “CM has made substantial progress toward compliance,” the suit says.

Panciocco was unavailable for comment, but explained her client’s point of view at a spring meeting. She described her client as a young businessman who needed more seasoning and pragmatism. That’s why he mistakenly used someone else’s land for storage before he had town approval.

“He thought it was storage and really didn’t think it through,” Panciocco said in the minutes. “He’s 24. It’s kind of the way I have thought about it.”

Chichester officials also declined to comment because of the pending litigation. In the past, board members have said they’d prefer to work with Mackenzie, rather than fight him.

Residents affected most by Mackenzie’s business have had plenty to say, including Dave Morey and his wife, Diane, and Meghan Rothaermel and Earl Lund, a married couple.

Morey is concerned about traffic, headlights shining into his window and snow being pushed onto his property, among other things

Rothaermel has a view of the trailers on the berm in her backyard. She wants Mackenzie off her land and a bigger buffer between the properties.

Planning Board Chair Stan Brehm did not mince words with Mackenzie.

“The appearance from the town’s perception is that when you were spoken to, it appeared that instead of working with the town, you continued to move forward and develop the property further. This has been drawn out,” Brehm said

Even as he disputed certain facts, Mackenzie was apologetic.

“I want to let you guys know that I have made mistakes, I am going to fix the mistakes,” he said. “We are only human.”

Since then, he’s taking a tougher stance, specifically disputing Brehm’s comments in court documents.

“This is wholly unfounded because CM received no written notice of specific violations until July 8, 2021 and even that did not relate to the property,” he wrote in his countersuit.

A note on the business’s website said it would be closed for the weekend and reopen Monday after the owner’s wedding.

“The sky’s the limit, don’t ever be afraid to chase your dreams,” he wrote. “You will never succeed in life if you don’t take the risk.”

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