(August 14, 2007. Manchester, NH.) - Sheehan Phinney Partner Rob Miller has successfully defeated a two-year effort by the Town of Dorchester Board of Selectmen to force the D'Acres Organic Farm & Educational Homestead to obtain six special exceptions that the Town Selectmen claimed were required to allow the farm to continue to operate.
Attorney Miller had argued that D'Acres' challenged activities were either permitted nonconforming uses that predated Town zoning, were permitted accessory uses under the Dorchester zoning ordinance, or constituted permissible activities under the new concept of "agritourism." The Town of Dorchester's ZBA rejected these arguments, and Attorney Miller then sued the Town of Dorchester of behalf of D'Acres to defend the farm's right to continue to operate without Town interference.
The case ultimately turned on the definition of "agritourism" - a new approach to farms' business models that incorporates the offering of work-for-lodging, classes, lectures, pot-luck dinners, community events, crafts, entertainment, and the sale of food, baked goods, and handmade items to allow these farms the necessary additional means to remain viable in the modern economy. With the case pending in Superior Court, the New Hampshire legislature passed a new statute defining "agritourism" in a way that affirmed Attorney Miller's earlier arguments to the Dorchester ZBA, leading the Town Selectmen to withdraw all charges of zoning violations against D'Acres.
Attorney Miller is the Chair of Sheehan Phinney's Land Use Litigation Group, and has litigated dozens of zoning, planning, wetlands, conservation and development disputes before local land use boards, the New Hampshire state courts, the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire. Before joining Sheehan Phinney, Attorney Miller clerked for United States District Court Chief Judge Paul J. Barbadoro. He is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green is a regional business law firm with offices in Manchester, Concord and Lebanon, NH, and in Boston, MA. The firm provides a broad range of sophisticated legal services to businesses and institutions in traditional and emerging areas of the law. Its diverse client base includes local and regional organizations, as well as national and international businesses with interests in the Northeast. |
