Groton News
Record Enterprise
 

03/02/2006 - In no other state in the nation do residents take their state slogan as seriously as we do. More than a slogan, "Live Free or Die" is a way of operating that translates into a fierce independence whose ramifications are at the same time both positive and negative.

One of the negatives for some towns has proven to be the aversion to enacting zoning ordinances. In our area, residents of Alexandria, Groton and Rumney have long opposed zoning as oppressive government intrusion into the rights of landowners. Actually, the argument is more often expressed as, "No G—d—planning board is going to tell me what I can and can't do with my property."

While opposing inordinate and unnecessary government intrusion into individual freedoms is an important underpinning of American civil liberties, we sometimes forget that compromise and cooperation for the common good are also part of the foundation of the American way of life. We realize that certain limits on individual freedoms are necessary to protect not only general peace and prosperity, but the individual freedoms of others.

Zoning falls into that category. Almost universally, northern New Hampshire residents, whether native or "flatlander," all agree that the aspect of living here they enjoy most is the small town, rural character of our towns. We enjoy our ability to look out of our windows to mountains, forests and quaint, white clapboard villages, not skyscrapers, junkyards or neon-lit nightclubs. Most towns in this area have already realized the only way to maintain that is to put some limits, in the form of zoning, on property owners' abilities to develop those kinds of facilities. Others – namely Alexandria, Groton and Rumney – have not, nor have they needed to – until recently.

Groton residents recently realized they had left themselves with no protections when they were approached by developers wanting to install a major paramilitary training facility in their midst. Rumney residents realized they could be mired in the same debate about whether to build in the floodplain that Plymouth is undergoing. While Baker waterfront landowners rightly question the impact of limiting growth along the river on their property values, the town realizes its river could become the next commercial growth opportunity because of its proximity to Route 25. Alexandria has already experienced a 30 percent residential growth rate, with developers wanting to build 30-unit subdivisions on class VI roads. Without zoning or other adequate land use regulations, the town has nothing in place to require those developers to upgrade those roads or limit their development.

In response, Groton has had to enact an emergency ordinance that will almost assuredly land them in court if the developers so choose. As the maxim goes, "Those who fail to plan, plan to fail." While any prior efforts to enact zoning in these three towns has, until now, been a political "third rail," guaranteed political suicide, it must now become a primary topic for town meeting and the boards of selectmen and planning. In Rumney, the planning board has proffered five land-use ordinances to limit growth on the Baker River and building in the floodplain. In Alexandria, Planning Board Chair Maggie Laberge asked the selectmen to put an article on the warrant to begin a discussion of zoning.

"The times they are a-changing," sang Bob Dylan. Change is inevitable and growth is change. North country residents are beginning to realize, however, that unless they take steps now to control that growth, we could well lose the qualities of our environment we love the most.