WINCHESTER — A surprise sale has put plans for a Winchester shooting range into upheaval.
As Ridgeline
Shooting Sports LLC is in the middle of trying to get town approval for
the shooting range, the land it proposed building the project on has
been sold to someone else.
Ethan DeWitt can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439, or edewitt@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EDeWittKS
The landowner terminated the
purchase agreement with Ridgeline, and the property was sold to another
buyer, who quickly withdrew the application for the shooting range
that’s before the Winchester zoning board.
Caught on its back foot,
Ridgeline is now suing both parties involved in the land transfer:
N&M Winchester Properties LLC, the seller; and Ashuelot River LLC,
the buyer.
Ridgeline is alleging that
N&M breached the terms of its sale and purchase agreement by
terminating the agreement, and that Ashuelot River knew about the prior
shooting range agreements and was thus not a buyer in good faith.
Alex Hartmann, president of Ridgeline Shooting Sports, did not respond to calls for comment Wednesday.
The land was deeded to Ashuelot
River LLC by N&M on Feb. 15, according to records in the Cheshire
County Registry of Deeds. Two days later, a lawyer for Ashuelot River,
Suzanne Brunelle, wrote a letter to the Winchester zoning board
announcing that the new owner “does not consent to the continued
application of Ridgeline,” withdrawing its variance application.
On Wednesday, Ridgeline filed its lawsuit against the two companies in Cheshire County Superior Court.
In the lawsuit, Ridgeline is
requesting that the court enforce the previous purchase and sale
agreement, which would allow Ridgeline to continue the variance
application. Ridgeline is also asking for the court to reverse the
termination of the agreement by N&M and nullify the land transfer to
Ashuelot.
The property transfer and legal
challenge are sudden developments in a process that’s drawn on for
nearly a year, bringing in strong opposition from Winchester residents
concerned about safety and noise levels from the proposed shooting
range.
Ridgeline and N&M had
originally signed purchase and sale agreements on March 20, 2016, for
three parcels of land in Winchester, between Route 119 in Hinsdale and
Fenton Hill.
But closure of the deal —
including the actual purchase and the deed — was based on approval for
the shooting range plans from various authorities, including the town
zoning board. And as concerns from citizens mounted, hearings for the
zoning board were delayed, first to allow for studies on noise levels
and effects on property values, and then to allow for citizens to air
their opinions.
The protracted process meant that
Ridgeline and N&M had to extend the deadline for the final sale of
the property three times throughout 2016 from its original deadline of
last May, according to the Ridgeline lawsuit.
The third time, the deadline was
extended to Jan. 31, with the expectation that final proceedings by the
Winchester zoning board would take place Jan. 30. But after not everyone
was able to speak at a public hearing on Jan. 12, a followup hearing
was scheduled for Feb. 2, and then rescheduled to March.
On Jan. 25, N&M made its
first move. It sent a letter to Ridgeline announcing that it had
“decided to terminate the (purchase and sale) agreement for now.”
N&M said that it would be getting in touch with Ridgeline “sometime
in the next two weeks with an update.”
Three weeks later, N&M
conveyed the property to Ashuelot River LLC, according to property
records. Ashuelot River LLC was incorporated in Manchester on Jan. 19,
according to records with the N.H. Secretary of State.
The records indicate that
Ashuelot River has a principal office address in Brattleboro and has as
its registered agent Anu Mullikin, a lawyer for Divine Millimet, a
Manchester law firm.
The ownership of Ashuelot River LLC is unclear from records.
Now, Ridgeline has centered its
lawsuit on what it says is a reasonable interpretation of the purchase
and sale contract: that given the two parties’ earlier conduct, it was
reasonable to expect the purchase deadline to be extended after the
zoning board hearings were delayed further.
Lawyers for Ridgeline and
Ashuelot River LLC were not available for comment Wednesday. A lawyer
for N&M Winchester Properties LLC could not be immediately found.
The next public zoning board
hearing on the Ridgeline variance application is scheduled for March 2.
It is unclear whether that hearing will go on as planned.
Margaret Sharra, Winchester’s land use administrator, was unavailable to comment.
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