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ZBA regrants variance for Capital City Subaru and approves reuse of merged lot for inventory storage
Summary
After an earlier variance expired, the Zoning Board reapproved a use variance allowing vehicle sales and inventory storage to extend onto an adjacent merged lot at 150 Manchester Street. The board also previously granted a one‑year extension on a related approval earlier in the meeting.
The Concord Zoning Board of Adjustment reissued a use variance to allow motor-vehicle sales and related inventory storage on land at 150 Manchester Street, restoring a prior approval that had expired. The vote to grant the variance was unanimous.
The proposal reinstates and clarifies a long-standing auto-dealership use that spans two zoning districts: the Manchester Street frontage in the Highway Commercial district and a merged rear parcel that lies in the Industrial district. The applicant, represented by Aaron Thibault of Northpointe Engineering and dealer owner Dennis Wilson, told the board the dealership currently operates from a 9,500‑square‑foot steel building and seeks additional room for inventory and a modest expansion of the building footprint as part of an overall site plan. Thibault summarized the site as about 3.85 acres and described engineering plans to add on-site stormwater management in the rear portion of the merged parcel.
The board previously considered and conditioned a variance that required a lot merger; the merger occurred but the earlier variance expired because the applicant did not complete construction within the original authorization period. At the start of the meeting the board granted a separate one‑year extension on a related approval so the planning-board review could proceed. At the use-variance hearing, Thibault described stormwater work, landscaping, a through-access connection to Integra Drive to facilitate deliveries and employee parking in the rear, and said the proposed condition would disconnect most of the site from the municipal drainage system by adding infiltration basins.
Board members said the requested use aligns with surrounding commercial activity on Manchester Street, noting nearby dealerships, parts suppliers and other automobile‑related businesses. Members also emphasized that the site-plan permitting process and AP (aquifer protection) overlay requirements will impose engineering and environmental protections before final construction. The board found the application satisfied the variance criteria, including that the proposed use would not alter the essential character of the area and that special conditions—principally the split-zone parcel and prior conditional approval—distinguish this property from others.
The variance was granted unanimously. The board recorded that site-plan approvals, stormwater controls and any required state and local permits remain necessary before construction and expansion of inventory storage.
