North Hampton homeowner blasts bid to take land by eminent domain for cell tower

NORTH HAMPTON — Lori Cotter broke her silence Thursday night on efforts by the town to take a sliver of her land by eminent domain for the sake of better local cell service.

“I’m Lori Cotter,” she told the crowd, “of 168 Mill Road. The scene of the crime.”

Cotter addressed the town's Select Board during the reconvened public hearing on whether the town should take an easement on the Cotter’s land using the state’s Eminent Domain Act. The 15,800-square-foot easement would be used to cut a 25-foot-wide swath across Cotter’s property to provide an access road to a land-locked parcel of town-owned land for a cell tower.

The board made no decision Thursday and will meet on Feb. 27 to discuss the issue further.

The Select Board initiated the eminent domain process, they claim, only after 11 residents filed a petition in mid-December because of the poor quality of cell phone service that plagues residents and emergency responders around portions of Route 1, Atlantic Avenue and the coast.

Previous story:Citizens take fight against land taking to Town Meeting

Cotter told those at the public hearing Thursday discussions on the land began long before December in what were supposed to be confidential, nonpublic Select Board meetings. She said her neighbors had been contacted by town officials who asked for their consent to an easement across their land. The neighbors, she said, refused and that was the end of that.

But not for Cotter and her husband, Ron.

“We were called into the Select Board’s office,” she said. “We were somewhat intimidated. People walked over our land without our permission. I imagine a lot of nonpublic sessions on this topic ... then a petition suddenly appears afterwards.”

Cotter said of the 11 people who signed the petition, many were town employees. One who signed, she said, has since apologized, saying she hadn’t known the impact it would cause.

As for the claim the new easement would simply overlay an existing Aquarion Water Co. easement, which Cotter said the water company hasn’t used since 1963. If Aquarion decided to do so, she said, the water company would install water pipes underground, not cut a road across her land where vehicles would regularly travel.

She said the road would separate her home from her 85-year-old mother’s home and impact her backyard and in-ground swimming pool.

Hampton Town Meeting: Here's a look at the top issues that will impact your wallet

Cotter challenged the town on its intended use of eminent domain for the purpose of accessing land for a private business.

“’No person’s real property,’” she quoted from law, “shall be taken unless the real property is to be put to public use.’

"Is this road to be a public road?” she asked.

Select Board member Jim Maggiore answered, "No."

She asked if the cell tower company would be given usage of the site for free or if residents will get the service for free. The town’s cell communications consultant, David Maxson, also answered “No.”

“So,” Cotter said, “the company will make money and the town will be making more. So (our land) will be used to make money.”

To Cotter, that reality doesn’t comply with state law.

Eminent domain gives the government the power to take private property, or in this case an easement on private property, even if the owner doesn't want to sell, for a “public use” as long as the owners receive “just compensation.”

According to the appraisal completed for the town by Stephen Bergeron in November, the town is willing to offer a one-time fee of $10,780 for the easement.

“Less than two years (property) taxes,” she said.

Lawsuits:Million-dollar beach homeowners sue North Hampton over ‘unjust’ property tax assessments

Cotter has serious issues with the results of Bergeron’s appraisal, which stipulated there would be no negative impact on the value of her land after the road was installed. While Bergeron acknowledged the family’s privacy would be affected by the easement, he still opined that it would have no impact on Cotter’s home value.

“I am amazed at zero value for privacy,” Cotter said.

Cotter’s frustration bubbled up when she disputed claims by town officials the road would not impact her swimming pool. In the small drawing the town gave her, she said, the road takes out the pool’s fence, its electric line, as well as the corner of its deep end.

“I’d be swimming in the ground,” the retired school teacher said. “There must be a better way to produce cell phone service without taking our land.”

More residents speak out against eminent domain

Unlike the first hearing on Jan. 23, when a number of people spoke in favor of the eminent domain taking if it meant better cell service, including the town’s fire and police officials, no one on Feb. 2 spoke in support this time. Cotter was not in attendance at the first meeting.

Kirsten Larsen Shultz presented the board with a petition against the eminent domain taking signed by “about 80 people,” many times more than the 11 who proposed it.

Hampton Beach $22M pier project:Supporters make case, but does State Parks want it?

George Rooney said as a Mill Road resident he would like better cell service, but not if it means taking a neighbor’s land.

“I’m a little shocked we’re talking about eminent domain in North Hampton,” he said. “I’m dumbfounded.”

Ann Marie Banfield agreed, asking the board if they were willing to “do this to your property?”

Wally Kilgore said there was too much happening in nonpublic session these days by the Select Board and this contentious situation was the result.

“I’m frustrated that the Cotters have to spend their retirement savings to defend themselves from us,” he said.

Is there another option?

Maxson spent nearly 30 minutes at the onset of the hearing explaining why taking the Cotters' property by eminent domain is the best solution to North Hampton’s cell service issues.

Town ordinance requires cell towers to be placed on town-owned land and the Select Board said they have exhausted all other potential sites.

One resident offers potential solution

Amy Margolis of 130 Woodland Road, however, gave the Select Board another option to consider.

“I have 50 acres of land at the edge of where (the proposed tower) would be,” she said, proposing it as an option for a cell tower on her private land. “Just because you can do it at 168 Mill Road doesn’t mean you should.”

Margolis had already spoken with neighbors, who, she said, were agreeable to the prospect. The tower would not be on town land, but perhaps the ordinance could be tweaked to allow it on her land, she said.

Maggiore was clearly surprised. “I want to make sure I heard you correctly,” he told Margolis. “Are you saying you’re willing to enter into negotiations with the town?”

Margolis said she was.

Budget Committee member Frank Ferarro offered a way to circumvent the need to mess with the town ordinance. Margolis might donate a quarter-acre lot in her property to the town for the tower, he proposed, then she could negotiate a lease for access to the site with the town or a cell tower company.

Hearing Ferraro’s suggestion, Margolis stepped back to the mic.

“That’s a good idea to put on the record,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: North Hampton homeowner blasts town's plan to take her land for tower