Meredith ZBA denies rehearing, Black Cove dispute likely headed back to court

MEREDITH — Black Cove resident Frank Marino was pleased that the Zoning Board of Adjustment had declined to grant him a rehearing Friday morning. 

“We’ve known we will only get justice in the court,” Marino said. “Their mind was made up.” A rehearing, he said, “would only have delayed things.”

Marino, supported by a group of his neighbors, is fighting to overturn a decision by the town of Meredith to grandfather a short-term rental hosted by his next door neighbor on Meredith Neck into the town’s current rental regulations. 

The owners of that property have emphasized to the town that the lakefront home is foremost a vacation home, and they use short-term rentals as a way to pay taxes on the property. This “accessory use” of the property, the town determined, qualified to be grandfathered into the regulation.

Marino and his neighbors contend the short-term rental is the primary use of the property, and the owners are rarely there. They also have pointed to the disruptions caused by the customers of those short-term rentals.

Marino had filed an administrative appeal, to be heard by the ZBA, of the town’s decision to grandfather the property. The ZBA denied his appeal in November, which Marino asked them to reconsider.

In a meeting Friday morning that lasted less than three minutes, the ZBA unanimously affirmed its past decision, saying it involved no legal or procedural errors.

“I don’t think it was necessarily perfect, but I think we did the best we could with it,” ZBA Chair Robb Jutton said. “I’m of the opinion that we not grant that and let them move on to the court.”