The Marion Zoning Board of Appeals met on Thursday night and issued their decision on the future of a controversial project to build a garage at 5 Main Street. They took the issue under advisement at their meeting on August 9, 2012.
Property owner Russell Sanford, Jr. has presented his plan to multiple town committees for the last few months and was met at each meeting with opposition from neighborhood abutters.
Sanford and his engineers have met individually with many of the neighbors in order to directly address their concerns. Some abutters felt the structure was too high and would obstruct ocean views from certain vantage points in the neighborhood. Others were worried about the possible negative impact to local drainage during rain.
As a result, several features of the garage were adjusted in consideration to much of the input from the neighbors. The height has been reduced, the location has been moved, the drainage plan has been redesigned, and the garage door style has been changed.
Neither Sanford nor his representative was present at the meeting.
“The second iteration the architect came back with made the lot less non-conforming and they tried to address in many ways the concerns of the abutters,” said ZBA Chairman Bob Wedge. “Generally speaking, when it comes to abutters, it comes down to the view. You can’t please everybody all the time but they did their best to mitigate the concerns of their neighbors.”
He said that there was a valid argument as far as the visual impact of the garage is concerned. There is currently a canopied carport at the property.
“So they’re going to take that [the carport] down and build a building?” said member Eric Pierce. “We’re essentially giving a building permit for a new building.”
“He maintained the non-conforming line on one side and another on the other side. When he brought it back to us, he maintained that extension of the non-conforming line, but by making the size of the structure smaller, he eliminated that other non-conformity,” Wedge said.
“It lessens the view. At least you can see through the carport now,” said member Betsy Dunn.
Wedge said the main issue was whether or not the new structure was more or less non-conforming than the carport.
“I’ve been by there a few times and given the architecture and design, I do not feel that it’s more of a detriment to the neighborhood,” said Wedge. “Our job is to determine whether this is more substantially detrimental to the neighborhood.”
“I think when you look at the whole situation on that corner, it’s clustered as it is. It’s tight in there, no matter if it stays the way it is or of this gets built. In my opinion, there’s really no change to that idea. There’s trees, there’s fences, there’s large houses,” said ZBA member Tom Cooper.
“I think the building is much better than what’s there now. I also think it’s going to close in that area a lot. At least with the carport, there’s air flowing. That’s a big building to put there,” said Dunn.
Wedge then introduced a motion to approve of the project, but there were only four voting members of the Board present: three voted in favor with Dunn voting against. In order to pass, at least four in-favor votes must be counted.
The next meeting of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals will be on Thursday, September 27, at 7:30 pm at the Town House.
By Eric Tripoli
