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Lee Veterans Resort Chapel leader vows to fight on Court dismisses claim that Peter Macdonald's group is a church

Portsmouth Herald - 11/21/2017

LEE - After losing a court case involving the town of Lee, the head of the Veterans Resort Chapel plans to file a motion asking the judge to reconsider his recent order and remove himself from the case.

Peter Macdonald, president of the VRC, has been in a long-running dispute with Lee over the use of VRC property on Stepping Stones Road. Macdonald says the VRC is a church to aid homeless combat veterans get back on their feet. The town has argued Macdonald is not a church and that the VRC is violating residential land-use codes by constructing small dwellings where veterans can stay indefinitely.

So far, the court has been on the town's side. A Nov. 13 ruling issued by Strafford County Superior Court Judge Mark Howard granted the town's motion to enforce a 2015 agreement between Lee and the VRC and fined the VRC $70,675. In the same order, Howard also affirmed a Lee Zoning Board of Adjustment decision that upheld an administrative decision of the town's planning and zoning administrator who last year ruled that VRC was not a church. Macdonald contends that VRC is a church.

The town argued the VRC has not held up its end of the 2015 agreement, and Howard did not mince words in his order. "The evidence is clear that VRC has breached the contract and violated the terms of the court order," he wrote in the order. "VRC has constructed tiny homes on the property without permits. It has allowed human occupancy of the structures. The evidence reviewed by the court establishes beyond question that the purpose of the tiny homes is to provide lodging and shelter."

Macdonald said he is still waiting to receive a copy of Howard's decision in the mail and has yet to read it. However, based on media reports on the decision, Macdonald believes Howard has it all wrong. He said he has already written motions for Howard to reconsider his ruling and to recuse himself from the case. "(Howard's) decision is completely against what it should have been," Macdonald told Foster's on Monday. "We have met all burdens."

Macdonald and an attorney representing the town signed an agreement in 2015 that was ratified by Superior Court Judge Steven Houran. The agreement stems from a 2014 suit filed by the town against the VRC and Macdonald for ordinance violations. One section of the agreement states, "Absent of town approvals, such as site plan approval, (VRC) will not permit or allow permanent or temporary occupations by any individual, in any camper, outbuilding, tent or other temporary or permanent structure."

What Macdonald calls a church is not what most people might think. It's located in a residential neighborhood with a single-family home that Macdonald built a few years ago. The church of the VRC is in the basement where there are wooden pews. Outside are a few small buildings that in May Macdonald called "tiny homes or single-person chapels for homeless combat vets." On Monday, he called them "an auxiliary building of our church to have quiet time."

Lee's enforcement action against the VRC began this past January. The town served Macdonald a notice of violation "for maintaining more than one residential structure on a lot in a residential zone," after a building inspector on the property doing an inspection noticed the small buildings looked lived in. Macdonald doesn't dispute that VRC members stay in the buildings overnight. "It's not a residence. It's a place where they can go and pray and talk to the god of their own choice," Macdonald told Seacoast Sunday in May. "They stay in there, but they don't live in there. They're not places where people can live long term."

If VRC is a church as Macdonald claims, the VRC could build the "single-person chapels," after a site review. By town zoning, a church is allowed in the residential neighborhood where VRC is located.

In his ruling, Howard reviews definitions of churches from four sources. "Here, VRC possesses none of the commonly understood hallmarks of a church," Howard wrote. "Instead, it is an entity that offers a tiny home in which a veteran is free to do as he or she pleases: engage in religious exercise or not; observe shared belief with others or not; engage in shared religious practices or not. Indeed, there is no evidence persons coming to the property must have anything at all in common with each other except that they must be veterans."

Macdonald said he has no plans of giving up his quest. "This is too important. Homeless combat veterans cannot be ostracized from the town of Lee," he said. "I'm a strong believer that combat veterans cannot be denied their constitutional rights. I don't care what the court says."