OWLS HEAD, Maine — A local property owner has appealed to the state’s highest court in an effort to build a house closer to the ocean.
Attorney Paul Gibbons filed the appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday on behalf of Doug Johnson of Osprey Family Trust. The appeal is of a ruling two weeks ago by Justice Daniel Billings in Knox County Unified Court that overturned the town planning board’s approval of Johnson’s plan to build a house in Owls Head.
Gibbons is arguing that there was substantial evidence to support the decision by the planning board to allow Johnson to build near the same location as a dilapidated deckhouse from a boat that had been placed on shore and used decades ago as a camp.
The deckhouse is located 45 feet from the normal high-water mark of the ocean, and Johnson wanted to build a house near that location. State shoreland laws limit construction within 75 feet of shore. But Johnson argued the house should be grandfathered because he was renovating the existing camp.
He filed an application for the project in 2013 and, after seven meetings, the planning board approved the house being built.
Neighbors Claire Perry and Jill Delaney, however, appealed that decision to the town’s zoning board of appeals. In May 2014, the zoning board ruled the planning board made an error and that the house should not have been allowed so close to the water.
Johnson appealed that decision to the Knox County Unified Court.
“The evidence in the record compels a finding that the existing structure could be relocated further from the ocean,” Billings ruled. “Therefore, the planning board’s decision is unsupported by the substantial evidence on the record and must be overturned.”
Gibbons said there are wetlands on the property further from the shore that would limit the size of the house that could be built if it were more than 75 feet from shore.