Club owners want board member barred

By RYAN J. HALLIDAY, Telegraph Staff

Published: Friday, May. 25, 2007

HUDSON – The owners of the Green Meadow Golf Club want a planning board member to drop out of any review of a possible open-air shopping center on the site because of a possible conflict of interest.

William Cole,

an alternate member of the board, should recuse himself from participating in board matters concerning the potential development of the golf course into a lifestyle center, said attorney Jay Leonard on Wednesday night. Leonard represents the Friel family, which owns Green Meadow.

“I do think it’s inappropriate for him to sit on this matter,” Leonard told the planning board, alluding to earlier accusations that Cole was biased against the previously proposed Riverplace project.

The attorneys for W/S Development had asked Cole to recuse himself from the review of Riverplace, citing several e-mails he sent over the past year that they claimed “demonstrate Mr. Cole’s direct and long-standing advocacy against the project.”

In one such e-mail, Cole, a former selectman who lives within a few hundred yards of the proposed project, conceded it would be “difficult – if not impossible” for him to judge the potential Riverplace development “in strictly objective terms.”

Cole on Thursday said he “couldn’t possibly comment” on the matter.

Leonard and his clients are shopping for another developer willing to build a riverfront mall on the sprawling golf course after W/S Development abandoned plans to construct a massive outdoor retail village there.

The Boston-area builders had planned to construct a lifestyle center on the 375-acre golf course, but backed out of the project last week and joined forces with another developer to open a smaller open-air mall across the Merrimack River in Nashua.

Leonard said the Friels are still committed to selling their property, and are actively looking for another developer willing to build a lifestyle center on the golf course.

While legally not an abutter to the site, Cole’s 2,671-square-foot colonial-style home and 1-acre of property on Fairway Drive is about 400 yards from Green Meadow Golf Course and valued at $344,500, according to the assessors department.

Nobody can force Cole out of the process, but an appeals court could eventually overturn any decision made by the planning board regarding a development if it determines Cole was biased against the project.

Under state law, the planning board, like other local land-use committees, is a quasi-judicial body, meaning members are held to the same standards as jurors.

Members cannot sit for a hearing if they have a direct personal interest in the outcome that’s different from that of other citizens, or if they have already formed an opinion for or against a project before the hearing process begins.

In 1984, the state Supreme Court overturned the town of Holderness’ approval of a project because a board member who had spoken in favor of the development prior to becoming a member, later participated in the review and application process.

Cole is an alternate member of the board, meaning he participates in meetings but only votes when one of the seven regular members is not in attendance.