Whitetail Northeast Realty withdraws variance request after ordinance change; abutters had raised noise, visual and well concerns

Patricia Pansiaco, representing Whitetail Northeast Realty LLC, told the Hooksett Zoning Board of Adjustment on May 20 that the company would withdraw its variance application for 267 Londonderry Turnpike after a zoning amendment changed permitted uses.

Patricia Pansiaco said the application had been for a wholesale establishment with a larger‑than‑allowed warehouse component. After meeting with abutters who raised concerns about truck noise, lights and potential impacts to drinking wells, the company revised its plan: "The docks were originally in the back of the building. So we moved them to the side," Pansiaco told the board, saying the change allowed the rear of the building to be lowered into the ground by about 10 feet and reduced the building profile toward neighbors.

Pansiaco and a project engineer referred to a traffic study for a sister property that predicted about 68 trips per day for the site (roughly 34 vehicles entering and exiting). On the day the traffic study was done the count included a scheduled tractor‑trailer; company representatives said typical operations would include three scheduled delivery trucks and about three to four tractor‑trailers per month for supply deliveries, with most daily trips generated by employee and customer vehicles.

Abutters said their main concerns were visual intrusion, noise and possible impacts on private wells. Claudette Brown, who identified herself as the property owner most directly affected, said she appreciated the changes but remained uncomfortable with the scale of a 44,000‑square‑foot building and asked for well testing "before and after" any work and for checks on foundations if blasting occurred.

Pansiaco described other mitigations: an 8‑foot stockade fence along the rear of the lot, additional screening plantings, reduced hours of operation (7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday) and options for lights to be timed or dimmed at night. She said test pits on the parcel reached 60 to 90 inches without encountering ledge, so significant blasting was not anticipated.

Board staff noted a March amendment to the zoning ordinance that added warehousing to the list of permitted uses in that zone; the change meant a variance for warehousing was no longer necessary for some aspects of Whitetail’s proposal. After discussing the ordinance change, applicants and staff agreed withdrawal without prejudice was appropriate so the developer could coordinate with the Granite Hill condominium association and, if desired, reapply under the amended ordinance.

No formal board vote on a variance was taken at the May 20 meeting because the application was withdrawn from the ZBA calendar.