OWLS HEAD, Maine — The state’s high court has ordered the town’s planning board to reconsider a proposal by a property owner who wants to build a house close to the ocean.
The property owner, Doug Johnson of Osprey Family Trust, initially was given permission by the planning board 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.
Neighbors appealed to the zoning board, however, which ruled in May 2014 that the planning board made an error and that the house should not have been allowed so close to the water.
The deckhouse is located 45 feet from the normal high-water mark of the ocean, and Johnson wanted to build a house at that location.
Shoreland laws prohibit construction within 75 feet of shore, but Johnson argued the house should be grandfathered because he was renovating the existing camp.
He appealed in Knox County Unified Court, where in May 2015, Justice Daniel Billings determined that “the evidence in the record compels a finding that the existing structure could be relocated further from the ocean.”
Johnson appealed that decision to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which agreed in a ruling dated June 7 that the planning board was required to initially consider the new structure’s compliance with the shoreland zoning ordinance.
The high court also determined, however, that the board erred in its earlier decision to allow construction by basing its decision on the relocation of structures rather than the section of the ordinance that deals with new structures that replace older ones. That difference could affect how close to the ocean the house can be located.
Johnson’s attorney, Paul Gibbons of Camden, said Wednesday that he has not spoken to his client but he expects Johnson will continue to try to get the house built somewhere on the lot.