The Woodstock ZBA has upheld multiple violations issued by the town’s building department for business use in a residential zone, putting an end to operations that have existed since the 1940s. Robert Holsapple, the longtime property owner, says he plans to sue the town.
Acting on complaints from neighbors, the building department served Holsapple an order to remedy violations on his property at 259 Wittenberg Road in January 2023.
Several commercial vehicles are stored on the property, some belonging to a tenant who runs a tree service and others belonging to his nephew, who runs a maintenance business.
Holsapple argued the use of his property has historically been a mixture of a residential, retail sales and service, repairs, and storage of vehicles, equipment and materials. The operations began in the 1940s, long before town zoning as an electrical, plumbing and excavation business run by his father, also named Robert, who lived on the property. A 1960s expansion included sales and repair of motorcycles and other recreational vehicles, which continued through the 1980s.
In the 1990s, Holsapple’s brother began using the property for a home-maintenance business, which is now owned by Robert’s nephew.
More recently, neighbors complained about increased noise as early as 6:30 a.m. and continuing until late afternoon. Though most are new neighbors, one who lived nearby for 41 years noted an expansion that cleared an area that had previously served as a noise buffer.
Despite many letters and comments of support for Holsapple, the ZBA ruled the uses have represented significant change.
“The code language concerning nonconforming uses is quite clear. Enlargement, relocation, extension expansion and increased visual impacts by any means whatsoever according to the code are all prohibited,” ZBA chair Gordon Wemp said in reading the February 14 decision. “The ZBA is charged with applying the law regardless of how long the property owners resided or worked on the premises.”
The office use by the nephew was the only operation that predated zoning requirements, the ZBA said. “The nonconforming use of the premises has impermissibly expanded from one office being used by a family member to the leasing of four additional offices, which does not qualify as pre-existing nonconforming offices are not permitted in an R-3 zone,” the ZBA ruled.
Holsapple believes the town has a hidden agenda to rid itself of nonconforming uses, “The city people are behind it,” he said. “They’ve driven out all the local people.”
Holsapple said his father did a lot of contracting work for the town, including water-main work, fire hydrants and signs. He said the activity today is far less than it was when the family had active dirt bike and ATV trails.
“The activity here on my property is diminished by probably 75 or 80 percent. Very little traffic is here. Very little noise,” he said. “Some of the noise that they’ve been complaining about isn’t even originating from my property. Backup beepers was one of the issues that was brought up, and not a single vehicle on our property has a backup beeper on it. It’s all these delivery vehicles, delivering fuel and packages and so forth to the neighbors.”
He said the only vehicles on the property were pickup trucks and small dump trucks.
“And the way that the building department handled it to begin with was just totally wrong,” Holsapple said. “He never came up here to talk to me about what was going on about a complaint. He came up here and served me the violation papers and said, ‘Looks like you’re having a bad day’.”
Though Wemp and ZBA member Joseph Belluck did visit the property, Holsapple said they didn’t verify any of the complaints.
“They never made an appointment with me to stop by to look at the place,” Holsapple complained. “One of them I guess did a drive-by, and Gordon, the ZBA chairman, said he came here after when I wasn’t here and viewed the property from the neighbor’s right-of-way, which I didn’t think that was right.”
Another bone of contention with the neighbors was use of a sawmill, which Holsapple said was portable and not viable for commercial use. He said he mills wood with it as a hobby.
“But you know if there was a problem with my sawmill, all they had to do was come and talk to me, which none of them have ever done,” Holsapple said.
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