Students and other residents gathered in front of Nashua City Hall to protest the construction of a new asphalt plant. (Photo by Gabriela Lozada, NH Public Radio)
A proposal to build an asphalt plant in a residential neighborhood in Nashua has been effectively scrapped. The company proposing the project dropped a lawsuit this week that aimed to reverse an earlier rejection of its plans.
The asphalt plant, proposed by the Newport Construction Corporation, has been a concern for community members since 2022. Many worried about pollutants that could be released, along with odors and noise.
The company argued its facility would be state-of-the-art, minimizing sounds and smells. But that didn’t assuage concerns.
“That’s not 100% guaranteed,” said Sarah Jane Knoy, the head of the Granite State Organizing Project, which opposed the proposed facility. “But even if the plant was perfect, we were very, very concerned about the trucks that would be going in and out every day.”
The traffic, Knoy said, could have presented danger for children in the neighborhood. And added emissions from potential plant operations or added trucks could add to the already outsized burden communities near the proposed plant face from respiratory illnesses and asthma.
After about a year of discussion, the Nashua Planning Board rejected the proposal unanimously last June. The company then sued the city’s planning board, attempting to overturn that rejection.
Knoy said Newport Construction Corporation’s decision to drop that lawsuit was welcome.
“We’re just tremendously happy,” she said. “People are just overjoyed.”
Jennifer Parent, a lawyer representing the company in its appeal of the decision, said Newport Construction Corporation voluntarily dropped that lawsuit based on “revised property goals that do not include asphalt manufacturing.”
“The decision to dismiss the case is not a result of any change in the Applicants’ view of any legal or scientific basis,” Parent said in an emailed statement. “As always, Applicants look forward to remaining productive members of Nashua’s business community.”
Lawyers who were in the process of trying to intervene in the appeal on behalf of the Conservation Law Foundation and a high-end apartment complex called Riverfront Landing celebrated the company’s decision to drop their appeal.
“I think it’s a tremendous victory for the city of Nashua and for Riverfront Landing and anybody that values the transitional plan for downtown Nashua from its industrial history to its more vibrant, cultural, walking and services-oriented community,” said Amy Manzelli, who represented the apartment complex.
Heidi Trimarco, with the Conservation Law Foundation, said the company’s decision to drop their appeal shows that the community’s feedback made a difference. She noted that planning board hearings had interpretation services for Spanish and Portuguese speakers so more people could fully participate.
“People came night after night to planning board hearings and told the planning board how this would be really bad for them and their neighborhood,” she said.
Trimarco also said the case was an example of where environmental justice laws could help New Hampshire communities. She has advocated for state regulators to use a “cumulative impact” assessment in permitting decisions, which would allow the state to take existing environmental burdens into account when making new permitting decisions.
“What we see instead is that certain communities are being unjustly asked to bear a disproportionate burden in being asked to house projects that are harmful to their health and harmful to their communities,” she said.
New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services said Wednesday that they still have a pending air permit application from the company for the asphalt plant, but they’ve said that process won’t affect the city’s rejection of the plans.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
