APPLETON, Maine — The owner of a house built in violation of local zoning regulations has filed a petition to have local residents vote on whether he can keep the house where it is and not have to move it or tear it down.
Jacob Boyington filed his petition with a sufficient number of signatures to mandate a referendum, Donald Burke, the chairman of the board of selectmen and an uncle to Boyington, said on Monday. Burke said the board has no choice but to put the matter before voters. Boyington needed the signatures of 76 registered voters from the community and gathered 94, according to Burke. The population of Appleton was listed at 1,316 in the 2010 Census.
A public hearing on the ballot item is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 21, at the Appleton Village School. Residents will then vote at the polls on Tuesday, June 9.
The petition calls for the town to accept a proposed consent decree in which the house he built at 99 Searsmont Road would be allowed to remain. Boyington has offered to pay the town $2,500 and plant some trees along the boundary lines with the neighbors in exchange for dropping the legal case.
The town rescinded a building permit it had issued after being ordered to in May 2014 by Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm. He later ruled that the town’s zoning board of appeals also erred in granting a zoning variance to Appleton Ridge Construction and its owner, Boyington.
The town’s code enforcement officer since has ordered Boyington to comply with the town ordinance, and last year said she did not know how that could be accomplished without the house being removed.
The town filed a land use complaint against Boyington at the end of February and a hearing on it and the proposed consent decree that had been scheduled for April 27 in Rockland Unified Courts was postponed at the request of the town in order to let the town vote be held.
The neighbors who have challenged the construction of the house for the past six years have asked the court to allow them to intervene in the land-use case. The requests by neighbors Paul and Rita Gagnon and Lorie and Patrick Costigan to intervene in the case have been opposed by the town.
The neighbors are arguing that the town cannot waive the enforcement of a zoning law.
Boyington purchased the 0.18 acre lot from the town for $4,100 at a public auction in August 2008. The town issued Boyington a building permit in 2009 but the neighbors challenged it, saying the lot was too small for the house to be built on and would be located too close to the road under existing zoning ordinances.
The neighbors also argued that Boyington was able to get a building permit, in part, by presenting an inaccurate description of the land to the town.
Though the legal challenge was still winding its way through the court system, Boyington built the two-bedroom house, which replaced a dilapidated structure. The lot is assessed by the town at $17,000 and the house at $93,560.