Coos County to Discuss the Cog "road" and the regs pertaining to the Cog Hotel

[peakbagger]

Coos County to Discuss the Cog "road" and the regs pertaining to the Cog Hotel

http://www.unionleader.com/local-go...view-development-on-Mount-Washington-02262018

The local news had reported a few days ago that the Coos County Planning Commission was reviewing the complaint regarding the Cog owner illegally upgrading the powerline path into a year round path for snowcats/ATVs. It appears that they will also have their technical resource discuss the part of the ordinance regarding development in that zone

http://www.cooscountynh.us/planning-board/agenda/coos-county-planning-board-32. I expect the public will attend but given its a deliberative session of the board so I do not know if there were be public comments allowed. The board has some latitude but given that this was remanded to the board by the county commissioners to determine if this past work required a permit, they may elect to just discuss it in public session and vote to either table or decide if a permit was or was not needed. If they determine its needed I think they would issue a stop work and require the Cog apply for the permit and take it up at a later meeting. At that meeting I believe he public could speak specific to the road/path.

Agenda item 4b with respect to the "Review of PD8" is the bigger can of worms. It is the section of the regulations that may or may not allow the Cog Hotel to be built. I believe the prior initial opinion of the boards technical rep was that it was not allowed unless a variance was granted. I expect the presentation and questions from the board will be interesting. Fred King one of the long term board members made it quite clear previously that if the rules didn't allow it, then the rules needed to be changed.

 

[peakbagger]

I went to the meeting. The press reports on what was supposed to happen were pretty far off and the chairman let everyone know up front. Yes the board did take up the issue of the possible unpermitted work but it was quite obvious they were making it up as they went along as they dont appear to have process in place to deal with external complaints of un permitted work. The owner of the Cog didnt show up but did send his attorney. He responded to inquiries but could not comment on any specifics. The lawyer for Keep the Whites Wild and some members were there. The board didnt directly address him, but he did ask if the board had received the addendum to the original complaint which included a USB stick of documentation of the recent work and additional supporting information. They apparently had not. At best it looks like this issue may come up two monthly meetings from now. I expect this process is going to take awhile. Fred King a most likely strong allay of the Cog, did not earn any points for his understanding of the issue at hand, he appeared to be very confused on the reason for the complaint and despite attempts to assist him with understanding the issue by several folks, he still appeared to be very confused. It was somewhat embarrassing as it was pretty obvious to all that he wasnt 100%.

The boards consultant made some observations of what the key issues could be. ATV trails do not require permits, snow cats may if they are intended to be used for a new use. My read is that if the Cog is improving this road for supporting ongoing cog maintenance its probably not a violation of planning regs. If on the other hand its an expansion of use into a new business, like carrying paying passengers up the mountain via snowcat, that is another story. A big complicating factor is that the state was not subject to the zoning laws in Coos county when they installed the powerline, they ignored them and therefore the board needs to distinguish between recent upgrades versus upgrades/damage done during the original electrical trench installation. The Cog has previously contended that they were just using what was left by the state, but Keep the Whites Wild's complaint claims and apparently has documented recent upgrades.

The discussion of the PD8 special designations which covers the summit of Mt Washington as well as random set of locations around the county was pretty much a waste of time, except to show that the county has not been enforcing the regulations in place for these specially designated locations. The regulations in place appear to have very shaky legal basis as the actual size of the area around a designated site does not appear to be documented. There are several designated sites that have been altered with no board action.

I expect this is going to be long simmering event. I expect the Cog is hoping they can wait it out and that opposition will lose interest and source of funding.

 

[Jazzbo]

ATV/Snocat road for occasional maintenance doesn't necessarily equate to safe route for regular trips offered to the general public. This requires much higher level and expectation of safety. Auto-road has huge zig-zags to accomplish gentle grades and alternate winter routes established long ago when environmental std's weren't so strict. I suspect Cog has some steep stretches might be a little dicey for snow cat.