The town of Gilford over the years moved away from merging grandfathered parcels and even started unmerging them at the request of the homeowner. This practice started in 1998. However they never completely removed the old merging ordinance from the books but they modified it several times over the years. The last time was in 2002. Once my abutter filed a lawsuit the town attorney Walter Mitchell told the Planning Director, John Ayer, that he was wrong to do the Aichinger unmerge and that the town had a merging ordinance. HOWEVER, the evidence now suggests that BOTH Ayer and Mitchell knew that the town had set aside this ordiance by unmerging dozens of lots previously merged and that they even participated in the process. They then proceeded to offer misleading and untrue information to the court, the Gilford local land use boards and to the Aichinger's as to their actions.
This file details Gilford's cover up of their selective unmerging practices. See File.
THE UNFAIRNESS OF IT ALL
Additional information has been uncovered concerning the selective practice of merging and unmerging of properties in Gilford. A detailed study of the town property files and records reveal the following:
- Some members of the Gilford Planning Board were fortunate enough NOT to have their lots merged while the surrounding properties were merged. See here for two examples Jeremy CT/White Birch Foxglove
- ZBA denies one property owner an unmerge yet the Planning Office quitely grants another.
- Some developers have all the luck...they got their property unmerged while others did not.
- When the Town of Gilford foreclosed on several adjacent vacant non conforming lots in Gunstock Acres they did not merge them! Instead they sold them off in violation of the ordinance...yet many other lots in Gunstock Acres were merged