Charlestown Town Council Removes Environmental Advocates From Zoning Board
As conservation-minded Zoning Board members’ terms expire they are being replaced with new members with ties to the building and development industries.
Without any discussion or explanation, two members who have advocated for better protection of ground and surface water and who have enforced Charlestown’s Zoning to not allow new expansion of local extraction businesses were denied their requests to be reappointed when the Town Council considered appointments at their July meeting. Town Councilor Susan Cooper did nominate these long-standing members, but she received no support from the other Councilors.
Two new members of the Zoning Board include a builder and another who manages large-scale residential, commercial, and industrial building projects. A third new member was appointed whose name did not appear on the agenda and for whom no backup was provided to the public.
Past Zoning Boards have overruled the town’s Zoning Official to allow a new sand and gravel pit adjacent to Pasquisett Pond and to allow a rock-crushing operation on Ross Hill Road. The Zoning Board that allowed the excavation and rock-crushing that is negatively impacting residents and wildlife is long gone because over the last 10 years appointments to the Zoning Board have included members with a strong commitment to Charlestown’s natural and cultural resources.
Town Councils have the power to make appointments and move regulations in whatever direction they choose, but residents should be aware of the direction this Town Council is taking which is one that reduces environmental protections and encourages faster growth.
The banner image is an aerial view of a sand and gravel operation on Pasquiset Pond. Excavation industries are a prohibited use in Charlestown, but quarries that existed before zoning was enacted in 1974 are “grandfathered” by state law. The Town’s Zoning Official ruled that this gravel pit did not exist before the prohibition, but the Zoning Official was overruled by the 2010 Zoning Board that ignored the Zoning Official’s written and photographic evidence in favor of hearsay evidence from current Town Councilor Rippy Serra and the gravel bank owners.
August 11, 2023 @ 8:34 am
Thank you for your thoughtful messages of support over the past few weeks. I hope that you will send letters or emails of support to me as well as to our town council and local media outlets for myself, Lara Wibeto, who has served more than six years and was the newly installed Chairperson after our former Chairperson Robin Quinn left unexpectedly in June. The July town council decision, except for the support of Councilwoman Susan Cooper, also ended my former fellow board member Cliff Vanover’s tenure as a senior voting Zoning Board of Review member. The town council will be making a decision about appointing new members to the Zoning Board of Review. Please see our applications which are available to the public. The town council meeting is Tuesday August 15th at 7:00 pm which is open to the public. I hope you are able to attend the meeting. Your support is needed and appreciated. I hope to see you all there and to continue serving our town on the Zoning Board of Review.
July 17, 2023 @ 7:42 pm
As a former member of the Zoning Board of Review, I think it is appalling to play politics with the environment, with the sense of place this town’s residents have enjoyed, and the fact that this town council has hoodwinked the voters by their lies during the last campaign. The company affiliated with the town council president and another company of at least one other councilor, can only benefit from more development. What a slap in the face to people who love their town the way it is. I will not support, in any way, anyone affiliated with this group of grifters. I want people to realize that once our environment is changed through development, there is no reclamation of the land that will return it to its former beauty.
August 11, 2023 @ 9:38 am
Thank you Mike.
July 17, 2023 @ 1:09 pm
Harm the environment- harm yourselves, your children, your grandchildren. Such short sighted, greedy development policies have brought us climate disasters, widespread pollution, driven birds and butterflies, native humans, flora, and fauna to the brink.
Mother Earth can’t take much more, and the evidence is before us daily for those who care to watch the actual news. Wake up Folks.
July 17, 2023 @ 10:00 am
Removing persons who are sensitive to the fragile environment of Charlestown will also happen to the Planning Commission. The current Town Council majority is already working on ways to eliminate electing the Planning Commission and making it an appointed commission. This latest move by TC makes its agenda clear: Remove ALL regulations that carefully manage growth in our beloved town. Wake up Charlestown !!! We need to remove Carney, Serra, Klinger and Stokes. These counselors, sponsored by the CRU, are in a full press to destroy everything we love about Charlestown.
July 17, 2023 @ 9:56 am
Very disturbing!
The town council’s decisions will affect Charlestown for decades, if not forever.
The lack of transparency is also alarming.
July 17, 2023 @ 9:26 am
Thanks for reporting and getting this behavior and these decisions on the record for all of us to see, but no surprise once this council was elected. The rural character of Charlestown will be eroded for as long as this council remains in power. Hopefully for as short a period of time as possible.