PETITION TO THE FRANCESTOWN PLANNING BOARD

RE: Eversource Scenic Road Application – Proposed Brand New 3-Phase Infrastructure and Mass Tree Removal (600+ trees) on the 2nd NH Turnpike South and Associated Intersecting Scenic Roads

DATE: October 27, 2026

To: The Francestown Planning Board, Francestown, NH

We, the undersigned residents, voters, and/or abutting landowners of the Town of Francestown, hereby submit this formal petition regarding the pending Scenic Road Application (NH RSA 231:158) submitted by Eversource Energy. This application requests permission to cut, prune, and remove approximately 600 trees within and adjacent to the right-of-way along 2nd NH Turnpike South, a legally designated Scenic Road, and associated Scenic Roads that intersect it, to facilitate building brand new heavy and industrial utility infrastructure.

The removal of 600 trees to install an industrial three-phase transmission corridor represents a catastrophic, irreversible alteration to the historic character, rural canopy, and ecological stability of our town's protected scenic roads. Therefore, we respectfully request that the Planning Board POSTPONE any final vote, consent, or issuance of a Notice of Decision allowing Eversource or its subcontractors to cut or alter any vegetation on 2nd NH Turnpike South and associated scenic roads until the following three conditions are strictly met:

1. Presentation of Alternative Engineering Solutions: Eversource must present comprehensive, alternative engineering plans to the Planning Board and the public. These alternatives must explicitly detail how regional grid balancing, redundancy, or expansion can be achieved without destroying the 600 trees and scenic canopy along Francestown's scenic roads—including but not limited to utilizing alternative routing along non-scenic roads, the technical feasibility of burying the proposed three-phased lines underground, or using specialized spacer wire (tree-wire) configurations that minimize the required clearing footprint and prevent the need for excessive utility pole height increases.

2. Execution of a Third-Party Independent Study at the Applicant's Expense: Given the massive scale of a 600-tree removal proposal, town volunteers lack the industrial expertise to verify utility assertions. Pursuant to NH RSA 676:4-b, the Planning Board should retain an independent electrical engineer and a certified third-party arborist/environmental consultant. This independent team must evaluate Eversource's grid reliability claims, audit the health and necessity of every tree marked for removal, and evaluate the long-term stormwater and aesthetic impacts on the town. The full cost of this independent review must be borne by the applicant, Eversource.

3. Requirement for Custom Reconfiguration and Height Mitigation: Consistent with successful regulatory precedents set in other historic New Hampshire municipalities (such as Amherst, NH), the Planning Board should require Eversource to provide a customized engineering layout. This layout must explore existing pole location adjustments, low-profile horizontal crossarms, and telecommunication attachment consolidation to ensure any mandatory system upgrades do not result in excessive, industrial-tier pole height increases along our protected scenic forest canopy.

TECHNICAL JUSTIFICATION & FINDINGS

Absence of a Localized Reliability Crisis:
The public reliability metrics for this sector do not indicate an emergency or a localized infrastructure crisis that would justify a multi-million dollar, destructive project for local residents. The current baseline performance metrics—including a Months Between Interruption (MBI) of 11.05 months and a Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) restoration time of 126.06 minutes—represent standard, stable operational baselines for rural New Hampshire within the Eversource Western Region. There is no catastrophic local service deficit to trigger an emergency clearing of this magnitude.
Extreme Low Density vs. Industrial Scale Costs:
The proposed project involves building approximately 3 miles of heavy 3-phase line along a stretch of designated scenic road serving only 30 homes. This equates to a remarkably low density of roughly 10 homes per mile. From a localized cost-benefit perspective, the capital expenditure and environmental destruction required to install 3-phase infrastructure for these specific 30 customers is fundamentally lopsided and unjustifiable. If localized reliability enhancements were the true objective, far less destructive and more cost-effective localized alternatives are readily available, including targeted single-phase upgrades, local reclosers, and standard, non-widened tree trimming maintenance.
The True Driver: Regional "Through-Grid" Backbone Redundancy:
Because a 3-phase loop of this scale cannot be justified by 30 rural homes, it is evident that this circuit loop is overall designed to serve as a regional backbone tie-line to connect major substations and back-feed the Mont Vernon, NH grid during regional emergencies. While regional grid redundancy is a valid utility objective targetable before the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Eversource cannot be permitted to bypass the legal protections of NH RSA 231:158 by using a low-density, protected local scenic corridor as a cheap shortcut for regional industrial infrastructure without proving absolute necessity and exhausting all alternative routes.
Furthermore, introducing brand new utility lines through heavily forested scenic terrain actually increases exposure to tree hazards, potentially worsening the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) unless heavily mitigated by advanced engineering solutions.

CONCLUSION

Under NH RSA 231:158, the designation of a scenic road is a deliberate act by the voters of Francestown to legally protect our landscape from unmitigated utility clearing. A proposal to eliminate 600 trees to install heavy regional transmission equipment through a low-density rural residential zone is not routine maintenance; it is an industrial corridor expansion. The town has a legal right and a fiduciary duty to verify that all non-destructive engineering alternatives have been thoroughly exhausted before a single saw is started.
We urge the Planning Board to exercise its regulatory oversight, table this sweeping application, and protect the integrity of 2nd NH Turnpike South and all affected intersecting scenic roads until an objective, independent evaluation is completed.
Petition Signers: