Abutters oppose proposed 42,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse at 267 Londonderry Turnpike; hearing continued to April 8

Whitetail Northeast Realty LLC asked the Hooksett Zoning Board of Adjustment for a variance at 267 Londonderry Turnpike to allow a wholesale/warehouse use larger than permitted in the commercial district. The applicant described a proposed 42,000-square-foot building with a 5,600-square-foot retail showroom at the front and a larger warehouse component in back.

The applicant’s attorney, Patricia Pansiago, told the board the company bought the site in 2024, acquired adjacent land to meet sight-distance requirements for the driveway and planned a building with parking, an internal truck circulation pattern and loading docks at the rear. Designer Katie Weiss said the showroom would sit at the road with parking to either side and loading docks at the back; she said wetlands are on the very rear of the parcel and “we're not disturbing the wetlands” and that a 50-foot non-disturbance residential buffer is shown on the plan.

Neighbors opposed the application during a lengthy public-comment period. Claudette Brown, who lives at 21 Farmer Road, said the building would be “a massive commercial building” with loading docks that will face her backyard and bring constant truck noise and a loss of privacy; she asked for strict operating-hour restrictions and said she expects a decline in property values. Other speakers raised similar concerns about groundwater, wetlands, increased truck traffic on the nearby bypass and the effect of early-morning truck activity on the neighborhood’s quality of life.

Applicant representatives said the business model differs from a large retail store: the applicant described cabinetry sales, with large, bulky deliveries that arrive by tractor-trailer three to four times per month and three 26-foot delivery trucks owned by the operator. They said the showroom is intended primarily for builders and contractors, and the warehouse stores large, bulky cabinetry prior to delivery and installation.

Board members and some attendees asked for additional detail about hours of operation, deliveries, building height, distance from rear property lines, site grading and potential blasting. The applicant offered that hours of operation would be 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday–Friday and said it would provide additional engineering and ledge/test-pit information to the board.

After public comment, the board voted to continue the public hearing to the regular meeting on April 8 to allow the applicant to supply the outstanding technical details and for the board to review the neighborhood concerns.

Votes at this meeting on this application were procedural: the board granted a continuance to April 8.

The application cited Article 10, Section B of the Hooksett zoning ordinance (commercial district uses) and parking standards used in the application narrative. The applicant also referenced dictionary definitions while explaining why the proposed combined showroom/warehouse use does not fit neatly into the ordinance’s listed categories.

What’s next: the board left the record open for the applicant to provide additional information on traffic/delivery patterns, building height and exact setbacks, test-pit/ledge data and any proposed conditions (for example, limits on operating hours or direction of loading-dock activity) to address abutter concerns.