NASHUA – The city Planning Board violated the provisions of Nashua’s Land Use Code when it approved, without requiring a variance, a local developer’s proposal to construct 44 units of multi-family dwellings at 8 Merritt Parkway in Southwest Nashua, according to a lawsuit filed in mid-December on behalf of numerous abutters and other residents of the area.

After postponing the matter at its Nov. 17 meeting, board members took it up at their Dec. 1 meeting, at which they approved, by a 6-0 vote, property owner Merritt Place LLC’s application.

That action, according to the plaintiffs, was “unreasonable and unlawful” and in violation of Nashua’s Land Use Code, which, the plaintiffs assert, “carefully and severely restricts the types of permitted residential uses” at that location, which is currently zoned R-30, meaning rural residential.

Lead plaintiff Jay Anthony Leatherman, represented by Concord-based Attorney Jeffrey C. Spear, also faults the Planning Board for reaching its decision without allowing any public comment, according to the suit.

Central to the plaintiffs’ argument is the type of housing being proposed. While the Land Use Code (LUC) permits single-family detached dwellings, modular homes, and elderly housing “in single-family detached housing only,” it prohibits what the applicants are proposing: A non-age restricted, townhouse development containing 11 buildings with four units each, according to the suit.

As for relief sought by the plaintiffs, they request that the court order the Planning Board to provide a certified copy of the entire record and file; declare that the board’s grant of a use variance is unlawful and unreasonable; vacate the board’s Nov. 17 and Dec. 1 decisions; and award the petitioner reasonable costs and fees.

For many longtime Nashuans, especially those living in the southwestern reaches of Ward 5, development proposals, no matter the size, strike a particularly sensitive chord. Most will recall the so-called Hall’s Corner controversy of the 1980s, when various developers began eyeing the then-rural land for sweeping redevelopment projects involving not only housing, but clusters of retail strip malls, eateries ranging from fast-food to higher-end dining, and assorted professional and medical offices.

A battle over the fate of the area’s wetlands erupted along the way, prompting neighbors, many of whom had never met each other, to gather for coffee in each others homes in true grass-roots fashion.

Out of some of those meetings came certain names that would eventually turn up on the ballot on future election days.

Negotiations led to agreements between those on opposite sides of the development and wetlands issues. In the end, some projects, mainly smaller-scale ones or those that had been scaled back significantly, came to fruition, but the vast majority of the proposals never got off the ground.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.