The Plymouth Select Board voted Aug. 11 to restore a parcel that town records had treated as merged but which an applicant asked to be returned to separate status under the state statute that covers involuntary merger of lots.
Town staff explained the statutory process under RSA 674:39-a, which allows owners of lots merged by town action for assessment or mapping purposes to petition the board to restore lots to their original metes-and-bounds descriptions unless the owner has taken affirmative action to merge them. The assessor examined deeds, an original 1973 survey and recorded descriptions and recommended restoring the smaller lot and correcting the tax maps, with adjustments to any abutting parcels to reflect monumentation found on the ground.
The applicant's surveyor and representative, Alan Bonnet of Lane Savayer (representing owner Max Lager), described plans to file a boundary-line adjustment with the planning board to bring the parcels into conformity with current zoning, and said the owner is pursuing the correction now for estate-planning reasons. The board noted the assessor's recommendation and approved the restoration by motion and voice vote.
Discussion: staff emphasized the assessor's detailed research and noted that restoring the parcel will allow the applicant to proceed with a planning-board boundary-line adjustment and any necessary monumentation work.
Decision: board motion to restore the involuntarily merged lots was made, seconded and approved. Staff said the assessor would send mapping corrections to the mapper and that the planning-board process for a boundary adjustment will proceed separately.
Ending: The applicant will pursue a planning-board boundary-line adjustment and the assessor will provide mapping instructions to reflect the restored parcel lines.