Michael Mills, who lives within 500 feet of the 130-store outlet mall under construction off Industrial Drive, filed suit Monday against Premium Outlets, a division of the Simon Property Group, alleging the development firm has strayed from the water testing conditions required under the project’s development agreement.
The developer and its consultants have failed to adhere to the timing, schedule and placements of the tests, outlined in the operations and management plan, approved by the town Planning Board in 2008, Mills claims in the suit, filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Nashua. The lapses have left the town without legal recourse should the project affect the area’s water supply, Mills said.
Premium Outlet representatives did not return calls for comment Wednesday . A court hearing is scheduled Nov. 10.
“Now (the developer) chooses to ignore the safeguards established by the mandated water sampling at this Site and leaves the Town residents to their own peril,” Mills wrote in the suit. “If blasting contaminates (the district’s) water supply, almost 28,000 residents will be directly affected.”
Mills, a former member of the retired opposition group Concerned Citizens of Merrimack Alliance, first brought his concerns this summer to the Town Council, the district water supplier and project consultants, among other bodies.
Town officials and consultant groups acknowledged the deviations from the testing conditions, but they said the lapses did not substantially affect the testing results.
“It is (our) professional opinion that the timing of the proposed sampling events is not a reasonable expectation and furthermore is not critical to further understanding the groundwater quality underlying this site,” James Emery and Jeff Marts, of Emery and Garrett Groundwater, the town’s water consultant, wrote in response to Mills’ inquiry, echoing the sentiments of other town boards.
“It’s ridiculous,” Mills, a retired real estate developer, responded this week. “People stood up at Planning Board meetings for five years, saying we need this testing for the town, and now they’re trying to ignore it.
“You can’t ignore it,” he said Wednesday. “It was put in there for a reason. It was put in there to protect our water supply.”
Construction crews conducted some site work this summer before formally starting on the first phase of the project at a September ground-breaking. The first phase of the $100 million project includes 100 stores to be constructed over 392,000 square feet, likely to open in 2012, developers have said.
They have planned to start blasting work this week, construction crews wrote in an Oct. 19 letter to area residents, included in the court files. But town officials have yet to issue the required blasting permit, according to Town Manager Keith Hickey.
Fire Chief Michael Currier, who authorizes blasting permits, has been working with the project developers to complete the required application, and he expected to sign off on the permit by the beginning of next week at the latest, Hickey said Wednesday.
But now officials will have to consult with the town attorney to see if the lawsuit will impact the permit application.
Currier did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
“We’ll have to seek guidance from our legal counsel and take their recommendation on the appropriate action for the town to take,” Hickey said.
“This really isn’t a town issue,” he said. “It’s not a town project. But we’ll have to make sure we’re moving forward appropriately.”
SOURCE: Nashua Telegraph By JAKE BERRY
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