Freedom—January 28, 2025—More than a month after a right-to-know request was submitted to Freedom’s Select Board, town officials have still not released information about zoning violations at Ossipee Lake’s Wabanaki Campground.

A right to know request was filed by Ossipee Lake Alliance on December 26, a week after Select Board member Gary Williams told the Planning Board there were 23 zoning violations that need to be corrected on the property. Williams is the town’s former Zoning Officer.

Long-time Wabanaki owner/manager Mark Salvati must attest to the N.H. Consumer Protection & Antitrust Bureau that he is in compliance with municipal regulations before a decision is made whether to grant approval for a conversion to a cooperative campground that will be controlled by shareholders.

Williams and recently hired Zoning Officer Bryan Fontaine made a Wabanaki site visit in December after a Planning Board member submitted pictures appearing to show construction work on the campground’s “hutnik” structures.

The Planning Board has been deliberating since March whether to approve construction work on the “hutniks” but has not issued a final ruling.

Williams confirmed that Hutnik #5 was fully constructed, and Hutnick #4 had a new deck. He said there were 21 other violations on the property, including decks added to RVs and trailers without required permits. Fines could exceed $60,000, he said.

Since then, town officials have declined to comment further, directing all right to know requests to Town Counsel Diane Gorrow of Soule, Leslie, Kidder, Sayward & Loughman in Salem.

Two requests to Gorrow after the initial request to the Town Administrator have not yielded the requested information.

Questions about the campground’s zoning violations began two years ago, but now center on a letter that Zoning Officer Fontaine sent to Salvati on December 18.

The letter stated that the property was in violation three ways, including “State and/or local permits were not obtained,” and “decks being built without permits on multiple lots.” The “corrective action” includes bringing illegal decks up to the standards of the “2021 building code.”

The letter does not list the specific violations and associated campsite numbers, which is important information because any change or addition to a structure in the protected shoreland requires a professional stormwater management plan if the impervious surface coverage exceeds 25%.

Independent calculations by Planning Board Vice-Chair Anne Cunningham, Freedom’s Conservation Commission, and McConkey Construction show the percentage of impervious surfaces in the campground’s shoreland ranges from 26% to 29.2%.

The Planning Board last week accepted Salvati’s “hutnik” plan as complete, but made its ruling contingent on the plan being rewritten and resubmitted with its scope limited to the “hutniks” in order to correct the overreach of previously submitted documents.

If a new plan is submitted, the board will review it and rule on the merits after receiving legal counsel on “common ownership” issues.

Salvati said he intends to comply with the 65-day deadline for resubmission, and will provide a stormwater management plan if it is required as part of a separate proposal he hopes to bring to the board at a future date if his “hutnik” expansion plan is approved.

He also said he will address the property’s zoning violations.

“I didn’t realize that I should get a building permit to replace decks,” he wrote in an email to Ossipee Lake Alliance.