WESTHAMPTON — Aaron Bauer has filed an appeal against the town of Westhampton in Hampshire Superior Court for rejecting his proposal to host a one-day motocross race event in town.
Bauer, of Southampton, filed the appeal in court earlier this year, after his permit proposal to host the race on land he owns in the woods on Main Street in Westhampton was rejected at the board’s Feb. 5 meeting.
However, the complaint may be tossed by Judge Jeffrey Trapani due to a procedural error by Bauer, who failed to notify the town clerk in writing that he had filed an appeal within 20 days of the Planning Board decision, a requirement under state law.
Bauer and Westhampton legal counsel, Abigail Sklar of KP Law in Boston, appeared in Superior Court Thursday under a motion by Sklar to dismiss the appeal since Bauer did not meet the timeframe.
Bauer argued that right after the Planning Board made its decision on Feb. 5, he talked to Town Coordinator Douglas Finn, telling him that he would be filing an appeal.
“I would say that notifying the town coordinator of an intent to file before the decision had even been filed with the town clerk is not sufficient,” Sklar said.
Sklar also said that language at the bottom of the Planning Board’s decision says an appeal must be filed with the town clerk within 20 days.
Trapani did not make a decision and took the matter under review but did note in court that Bauer telling Finn of his intent to appeal is likely not sufficient notification.
“You might have told them your intent, but I’m not sure telling Mr. Finn would be sufficient,” Trapani said.
Trapani continued, “I think it would be a stretch of the law to tell someone that you plan to do something without having actually done it; that makes it a slippery slope.”
Bauer argued that it was his understanding that Finn would have notified the clerk after their conversation. Court documents show that it was not until May 5 that the town clerk received a summons to court.
The Planning Board rejected Bauer’s permit proposal because the town’s zoning bylaws prohibit a commercial-use event, which the motocross event was classified as by the town, to occur in a watershed protection district. The district encompasses most of the woods where the race was planned.
As for Bauer’s complaint, it claims that the Planning Board’s decision was an overreach of its power and that the board should have received guidance from a building inspector and the Conservation Commission. It also claims that the map used to identify the watershed protection district was incorrect.
