Dube v. Town of Hudson, 94-139

• Decision Date: 14 August 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-139,94-139
• Citation: 663 A.2d 626,140 N.H. 135
• Parties: Michael DUBE and others v. TOWN OF HUDSON.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

Page 626

663 A.2d 626

140 N.H. 135

Michael DUBE and others v. TOWN OF HUDSON.

No. 94-139.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

Aug. 14, 1995.

Bolton Law Offices, P.A., Nashua (Steven A. Bolton, on the brief and orally), for plaintiffs.

Donahue, McCaffrey, Tucker & Ciandella, Exeter (John J. Ratigan, on the brief and orally), for defendant.

David M. Groff, Pelham, by brief and orally, for intervenor, David A. Brooks.

BATCHELDER, Justice.

The plaintiffs, Michael Dube, Raymond Dube, and Anita Dube, appeal the order of the Superior Court (Hollman, J.) affirming the decision of the Town of Hudson Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA). The ZBA reversed a decision of the Hudson Planning Board approving a site plan agreement for the plaintiffs' property. We affirm.

The plaintiffs' predecessor in title was granted a variance to permit on the property the sale of new or rebuilt heavy equipment and the performance of minor repairs incidental thereto. The variance required that the use be set back seventy-five feet from the front property line. When the plaintiffs were considering purchasing the property as a site for plaintiff Michael Dube's business, Auto Body Discount Center, Inc., the town's zoning administrator advised them in writing:

[A]uto sales and repairs may be carried out at [the property]. Any expansion of the business must be approved of by the Hudson Planning Board. Additionally, your operation must meet the stipulations spelled out in the [earlier variance].

The plaintiffs purchased the property, which is located partially in the A-2 residential zone and partially in the D rural zone, in 1987.

In 1989, the town petitioned to enjoin the plaintiffs' use of the property. The parties reached a compromise whereby, in order to move a greater portion of their activities indoors, the plaintiffs would seek site plan approval for two additional buildings from the Hudson Planning Board. The planning board approved the site development agreement, limiting the number of cars stored on the property to five hundred and requiring the plaintiffs to "comply with all subdivision, site review and zoning regulations."

On June 18, 1992, the intervenor, David A. Brooks, an abutter, appealed to the ZBA, raising the question "whether the uses specified in the site development agreement are permissible in the A-2 residential zone." The ZBA overturned the planning board's decision, "concluding that the Planning Board had changed the original variance, was allowing a junkyard, and was endangering wetlands." The plaintiffs appealed to the superior court, which affirmed the decision of the ZBA on the record submitted. This appeal followed.

When construing zoning appeals, the superior court must treat all findings of the ZBA as prima facie lawful. RSA 677:6 (1986). "The order or decision appealed from shall not be set aside or vacated, except for errors of law, unless the court is persuaded by the balance of probabilities, on the evidence before it, that said order or decision is unreasonable." Id. We will not overturn the superior court's decision unless it is unsupported by the evidence or legally erroneous. Belluscio v. Town of Westmoreland, 139 N.H. 55, 56, 648 A.2d 211, 212 (1994).

The plaintiffs first argue that the trial court erred in ruling that the planning board had contravened the zoning ordinance by approving the site development agreement. They maintain that because the vast majority of the property is located in the D rural zone, where automobile sales and service is a permitted use, their use of the property does not violate the zoning ordinance. The trial court, however, was concerned with the plaintiffs' use of that portion of the property in the A-2 residential zone. It found that the site development agreement approved by the planning board clearly showed parking and vehicle...