BELLOWS FALLS — A local property owner and his partner have dropped their appeal to the Vermont Environmental Court to build a crematorium, chapel and a pajama factory.
Citing the mounting cost of legal fees and the long process of appeal, Mary DeSimone and John Moisis have abandoned their fight to overturn a zoning board of appeals decision.
The ZBA had failed to approve DeSimone's application for the industrial-zoned property at 30 Island St., just above the Waypoint Center.
“It's dead in the water,” said Mary DeSimone, who had wanted to launch the businesses there. “That includes the pajama-making factory.”
DeSimone's application was approved by the Rockingham Zoning Board of Appeals by a 3-1 vote on Nov. 23, but three ZBA members did not vote on the application.
According to state law, a majority of the seven-member board has to approve a permit. Since it received only three votes, the application was not approved.
In December, DeSimone appealed the board's vote to the Vermont State Environmental Board along with Moisis, whose Moisis Family Trust owns the property.
The crematorium and chapel were planned for one side of the Island Street building, and the factory for diabetic nightwear on the other.
“Our business plan [for loan approval] hinged on the whole package,” DeSimone said. “The whole building needed to be retrofitted. You can't just do one part of the building.”
Liam L. Murphy, an attorney for the Moisis Family Trust and DeSimone, sent a letter that states that his clients “have determined that they would like to withdraw the appeal in light of the time frame for a final decision.”
Interested-party status denied
During the appeals process, DeSimone and Moisis challenged the interested-party status of Andrew E. Smith and Evelyn Weeks. A motion to dismiss Smith and Weeks as interested parties was filed at the end of February.
In April, Judge Meredith Wright handed down a decision addressing Weeks' and Smith's qualifications, eventually denying both as interested parties.
Smith was dismissed because, according to Wright, while he responded that he was “able to demonstrate a potential 'physical or environmental impact on [his] interest, and on the interest of [his] family and property',” he failed to give any information of what those impacts might be.
Smith's residence on Atkinson Street does not abut the Island Street address, but is within the village.
In a reply to the request to dismiss his interested-party status, Smith suggested he was not given sufficient notice of his opportunity to respond and had been confused about what the procedure would be.
Smith, who was originally granted interested-party status by the Rockingham ZBA, says he “provided specific testimony to the court” to support his claims. Court records make no note of those physical or environmental impacts.
Smith was one of several residents who were concerned about emissions from the crematory being so close to restaurants and downtown Bellows Falls, as well as air-quality concerns, in a village trying to attract tourists.
While experts brought by DeSimone and Moisis to the original zoning board hearing claimed there would be no smell, and that there would be virtually no emissions, some skeptical residents cited common temperature inversions in the area in their opposition to the plan. Temperature inversions are common in river valleys, in particular along the Connecticut River.
Despite the court victory that overturned Smith's interested-party status, DeSimone decided not to pursue her appeal any further.
'Inmates running the asylum'
“The applicants are frustrated because all they want to do is create a business, a much needed community service and jobs, in a community with high unemployment,” Murphy wrote in the motion to withdraw.
“Instead, their Project is mired in the procedural mess focused on the minutiae of the permit process with parties who did not participate in the hearing process, do not live nearby, and do not own or lease property nearby.”
Murphy reiterated that after speaking with his clients and with his clients having withdrawn their appeal, “with a no-cross appeal likely, this is finished.”
“They're going to seek to do business elsewhere,” he said.
DeSimone believes an opportunity to bring in business to the community has been missed.
“I would have thought that coming from out of state, and with the willingness to start a business that would create jobs in this economy, they would welcome us with open arms,” she said. “We can't even get a fair shake.”
“Bellows Falls is not business friendly,” said DeSimone. “The inmates are running the asylum.”
“It's frustrating,” she added. “They've blocked a perfectly good use for a zoned-industrial building.”
DeSimone accused the town fathers, the Chamber of Commerce, and board members of having a network among themselves. “These people know who they are,” DeSimone alleged. “If you're not in the network, you don't do business.”
DeSimone made it very clear where things stand now.
“We withdraw. We're done. We've packed our tents,” she said.