Concord's NH Concerned Citizens

  • by: Donna Robie
  • recipient: City of Concord officials, city of Concord mayor, Governor Maggie Hassan

To protect property owner's rights and health and safety issues presented during a recent 9- day and night celebration held in a residential lot in the City of Concord.

October 2015

PETITION FROM CONCORD’S CONCERNED CITIZENS:

Dear City Officials:

We, a group of tax paying citizens have drafted the petition below in regards to a public event that took place at 83 Pembroke Road, Concord NH from September 28, 2015 through October 5, 2015, celebrating a nine-day celebration. The issues and complaints pertaining to this event are stated herein.

(1). Zoning. This is a residential area and the lot that this event was held at/on is only .32 acres and abuts many homes. The event was deemed a religious ceremony which lasted 8 days and nights. The permit should never have been issued in such a small lot or-at a residential zoned area.
Solution: require such future large group events to be held in a public place especially zoned to handle the number of attendees.
(2) Permit. Any permit issued by the City of Concord should have to follow their own guidelines and protocol from application to issuance with no special exceptions. Once permit is issued and infractions are reported, if not immediately corrected,event should be shut down until corrections have been addressed.
(3). Noise ordinance- The City of Concord's noise ordinance currently states no excessive noise from the hours of 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. However, there should be an additional clause that if the police department receives numerous complaints about one particular event and the noise during the off hours, action will be taken to rectify the noise at any given time.
The noise factor during this 8 day and night event in a residential- zoned area was reported numerous times. It was constant for over 12 hours a day (with short recesses) and impacted a two-block neighborhood and because the noise occurred within the city noise ordinance acceptable range, no action could be taken by the police.
Solution: require such future large group events to be held in a public place especially zoned to handle the number of attendees.
(4). Violations of the city permit were pointed out, police showed up and violations were not corrected. When such violations of said permit are reported, it is due diligence that the police officer on call to cite the infractions and seek immediate correction of such safety issues and halt event until corrected.
Among the many safety issues reported during this specific event: parking on both sides of the road, parking on curve at times, dropping off and unloading; removing city signs so people can park; parking which totally blocked sidewalk and a fire hydrant. Current law regarding distance from a fire hydrant is 15 feet.
Solution: require such future large group events to be held in a public place especially zoned to handle the number of attendees.
(5) List of safety/hazards that occurred at event: Fire was allowed and held within 5 feet of wooden stockade fence; excess of over fifty people on any given day in attendance; commode sitting openly in the yard; garbage strewn along abutting property and tossed across street, lack of use of purple City bags for refuse pick up; black hoses seen emptying fluid into city storm drain after heavy rains; two porta- potties on small residential lot; etc.
(6) The impact on this neighborhood during the 8-day event:
Lack of consideration, excessive and non-stop noise; the number of over 60 and elderly neighbors impacted; the parking and road issues; the lack of communications between city officials and concerned residents, disregard for one's neighbors, police did not remedied noise situation when called, the lack of remedies to correct all health or safety infractions; residential area became an 8-day party zone.
Solution: require such future large group events to be held in a public place especially zoned to handle the number of attendees.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT- There are many other hand-written copies of this petition being circulated so there is well over one hundred signatures at this time. We hope to meet with a few city councilors this coming week to present this petition.
Photos will be attached to this document.
This petition was developed by the Concord Concerned Citizens.
Respectfully submitted,

Update: after meeting with Mayor Bouley:

RECAP OF 10-16-2015 meeting with Mayor of Concord:

 

I met with Mayor Jim Bouley for well over an hour this morning. He sat and listened to all the evidence, asked pertinent questions about all the petition complains and the suggested changes (see 1-7 below) to address our concerns from this occurring in the city of Concord in the future. He explained the next and final process to complete our goal:

 

1)     I will gather all documentation pertaining to this petition and mail it to the City Clerk, Janice Bonefant on Tuesday, October 20, 2015;

 

2)     The City Clerk will then make copies and forward all documentation to the City Council to be placed on their November meeting agenda;

 

3)     The City Council will then assign a committee to address our petition and issues presented- most likely it will be assigned to Administration which includes multiple sub-committees and/or not include the Public Safety Advisory Board;

 

4)     The selected committee(s) will then hold a meeting to review our petition and discuss solutions and make suggestions and report back to the full City Council.  Public input will be still allowed. I have been asked to select 3-4 people to attend this session.

 

5)     Report is sent back to the full City Council who in turn will issue a follow–up statement regarding the status of our petition and explanation as to how each of the concerns within the petition will be addressed or not.

 

 

Once the permit and enclosures are in the hands of the City Clerk it becomes a public record.  Meeting times regarding this petition or when public input will be allowed will be posted on their community calendar.

 

 I modified a few of those changes I posted this morning on facebook prior to the meeting.  Please review below.

 

Please, if you still want your voice and concerns to be heard, won’t you kindly sign the online petition by Monday 5:00 p.m. so I can include all of those signatures with the full documentation.  I was just told by the mayor that anyone is allowed to sign a petition including children and those who live out of state with Concord ties.

 

I hope I have represented all in a timely and judicious manner!

 

Donna Robie

 

 

MEETING WITH MAYOR JIM BOULEY- WINDMILL- 10-16-2015

 

Attendees:  Mayor Jim Bouley; Donna Robie; Justin Robie and Tim Willis

Commenced:  10: 00 a.m.

 

Changes we are petitioning for:


(1) Permit applications are held to the same standard for all;

     (copy of existing event permit attached)

 

(2) In the future, permit violations will be clearly listed on a secondary page including the names and phone numbers of those to be called when permit restrictions are being violated; as well as listing the monetary fine and penalty attached to each violation.

      (copy of existing event permit attached)

 

(3) Changes to permit policy going forward to include but not limited to, that events lasting for longer than 1-2 days, are better suited to be held in a public not residential area; and more thought is given on the impact of neighbors.

 

(4) We want to know: how many complaints, nature of those complaints and copies of logs of complaints that were made to the Concord PD.  We want to know if police are even aware what are City of Concord's safety and code violations and if not, they need to be made aware; if they know, then why were they not acted upon?

  (We were told only 3 calls logged by PD. I made more than three calls alone and was told other neighbors did as well.)

 

(5) Noise factor needs be added to permit restrictions concern. Municode noise ordinance was broken for nine day and nights and not rectified; even though another ordinance states it is in effect from 10:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. under normal circumstances. There needs to be a clause for special permits issued that cause or create excessive noise or disturbing the peace within the (7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. permissible hours) and when that happens that the noise ordinance and tumultuous conduct will supercede any other noise (timed) ordinance on file; *(Municodes- Noise; Tumultuous conduct attached)

 

(6) In the future when violations are reported (such as health and safety issues) that they be immediately addressed. We would like an explanation from the city of Concord as to why when numerous safety and health violations were reported to the code department and a few to the police department, as well as providing visual (proof) evidence of such violations to the code department why they still were not enforced;  (Such as 308.1 Article 13-1-1 and 13-1-3- photos attached)

 

(7) We would like the city officials to publicly assume some responsibility for this situation. This will go a long way to ease the tensions the media created.

 


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