HANOVER — After years of delays, a Hanover church is looking to finally start building a permanent home on Greensboro Road, but neighbors are not slowing down their fight against the project. 

In one of the most visible progressions yet, contractors tore down a house at 32 Greensboro Road on April 7 to make way for the planned roughly 24,000-square-foot, two-story Christ Redeemer Church.

The roughly 300-person congregation currently meets at Hanover High School, but has been working towards building a permanent home in town for over two decades. In 2018, the group purchased four properties to build the church in a residential neighborhood near the Hanover-Lebanon town line. The town granted site plan approval for the project in 2023.

But neighbors have opposed the project since the beginning. On Thursday, the Hanover Zoning Board of Adjustment will hear an appeal neighbors Jeff and Lara Acker filed to Hanover’s ZBA in December related to drainage work the church completed at 34 Greensboro Road last July. 

A cyclist rides past 32 Greensboro Road in Hanover, N.H., where a house was demolished on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. The house was on one of four adjacent properties owned by Christ Redeemer Church. JAMES M. PATTERSON / Valley News

The Ackers also appealed the Planning Board’s original approval of the project in Superior Court in 2024 and have taken the case to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

“I have an undying faith in the system to eventually get this right, otherwise I would’ve stopped a long time ago,” Jeff Acker said in a Wednesday interview. “The proposal doesn’t belong where it’s being proposed. It’s not good and we’ll just keep pointing out all the things that are wrong and I have complete faith that eventually we will prevail.”

The project is “too big and too intense” for the residential neighborhood, Acker said. He noted that he would “feel exactly the same if it was a church, a movie theater, a night club.”

But the church has considered the options and found no better location, Lauren Groves, the church’s director of operations and strategic initiatives, said Thursday.

Over the years, the church has “always had our eyes open for other opportunities, for what makes the most sense,” and has looked at “probably every property on the market in Hanover” over the last 15 to 25 years, Groves said.

The lots on Greensboro Road are ideal because of their proximity to Dartmouth College and to the interstate, Groves said. The location is also central for congregants who live around the Upper Valley.

“We’re really committed to Hanover and to the Upper Valley and we’re looking forward to having a place where we can be established and serve the community,” Groves said.

A state law, RSA 674:76, was instrumental to the project’s 2023 approval because it limited the Planning Board’s power of review. The 2022 law prohibits zoning ordinances and site plan review processes from restricting structures that will primarily be used for religious purposes. A Christ Redeemer Church representative testified in support of the bill while it was making its way through the state Legislature.

The Hanover Zoning Board denied a request for a special exception to build a church in 2018 even after CRC scaled back its proposal because of concerns about traffic, noise and the scope of the project. In 2019, the ZBA approved the project with conditions including a smaller maximum occupancy and limited operating hours. In April 2023, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that these restrictions were not allowable.

The Ackers appealed the Planning Board approval in superior court in 2024 on the grounds that the RSA is unconstitutional because it “impermissibly supports religion over non-religion,” according to court documents.

Judge Michael Klass ruled in November that while RSA 674:76 does treat projects differently depending on whether they are religious, the law is constitutional because New Hampshire legislators had a “legitimate government interest” in “promoting the free exercise of religion.”

In January, the Ackers appealed Klass’ decision to the New Hampshire Supreme Court which accepted the case in February.

The ongoing ZBA appeal also centers on how RSA 674:76 applies to the project.

In an appeal filed last summer, the Ackers argued that Hanover Zoning Administrator Bruce Simpson incorrectly determined that the RSA barred him from enforcing the zoning ordinance for work at 34 Greensboro Road.

The pair also appealed Simpson’s determination that the church did not need a permit for the drainage work regardless of the law because there are less than 1,000 square feet of wetlands on the property. The Ackers also asserted that the work should have undergone further review because it is in a floodplain, according to the appeal.

In November, the Zoning Board concluded that the primary use of 34 Greensboro Road is not religious purely because it is owned by a church. The lot is residential and therefore subject to review.

The board directed Simpson to require Christ Redeemer Church to produce an updated wetlands survey to determine the size of the wetlands because the previous survey was completed more than five years ago.

After the ruling, the church submitted a wetlands survey completed after the drainage project, according to Acker’s most recent appeal and minutes from a Jan. 22 Zoning Board meeting.

Now, the Ackers are protesting the use of that survey.

“The question in front of the ZBA in the prior case was whether a permit was needed for the work that had already been done,” Acker wrote in his appeal. “Obviously, in order to decide whether or not a permit is required for work, the PRE-WORK conditions are critical information.”

The Ackers contend that a wetlands scientist was on site last summer before the drainage work was done and that the church should have submitted this scientist’s findings instead of a survey completed after the drainage work. 

The Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to take up the issue at 7 p.m. Thursday at Town Hall.

Christ Redeemer Church is “not really directly involved” in the Zoning Board appeal because the Ackers are appealing the town’s decision, Groves said Thursday. Instead, the church is “proceeding with the rules and regulations that apply to us.”

“We try to stay focused on following our regulations and instructions and not be too deep in the weeds on what other people are doing,” she said. 

In response to the Ackers’ question of whether the drainage work reduced the size of the wetlands and whether the church intentionally completed a survey afterward, Groves said there was likely “some misunderstandings” of the work that has been done. She noted “the stormwater management on the property is a major focus of ours and of others and they’ve been reviewed at a number of points.”

The church has followed all of the local and state development rules over the course of the project, Groves said, including completing multiple wetland surveys. The project has also been reviewed by the New Hampshire Superior and Supreme courts.

“This stuff has been reviewed repeatedly and the approvals have been upheld repeatedly,” Groves said.

The church is focused on moving forward with the project and is waiting for Hanover to approve a building permit, which is the last barrier to construction.

The town has received the church’s permit application but cannot approve a building permit until the Zoning Board appeal is resolved, Simpson said in a Tuesday email. The church could begin construction before the Supreme Court case is resolved, but would be doing so at its own risk in case the court approves the appeal.

This month’s demolition at 32 Greensboro Road, however, was allowed because it is on a different lot, Simpson said. The town issued a demolition permit for the work.