Government
‘This Is Just Shocking’: Neighbors Voice Opposition to Plans for Larger Home on Oddly Shaped Jelliff Mill Road Lot
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Saying the new owners of an oddly shaped parcel on Jelliff Mill Road knew what they were getting in acquiring the property, and objecting specifically to the size of a proposed new dwelling there, neighbors during a public hearing on Monday night voiced opposition to the plan. Specifically, in more than doubling the size of the 1.5-story, 1,200-square-foot cottage that sits now at 335 Jelliff Mill Road, a taller, slightly wider structure proposed for the long, narrow lot (60 feet wide and 744 feet long) would be exacerbating what already is a nonconforming structure, neighbors told members of the Zoning Board of Appeals at their regular monthly meeting. The neighbor to the west, Richard Lurie, told the ZBA that “if you say ‘Yes’ to this request, when would you ever say ‘No’?”
“In other words, everybody who is living next to a non-conforming piece of property in this town, if somebody buys it, they can use the nonconforming aspect as the hardship and then have the right to make the property more nonconforming and therefore degrading the values of the properties around them,” Lurie said during the hearing, held in a board room at Town Hall. “How would you ever say ‘No’? Because if they bought a piece of property with the non-conforming aspect as a justification to make it more non-conforming and to the detriment of the neighbors and the value of the neighbors’ houses.”
He added: “I believe the objective of P&Z is to ensure that zoning laws are followed and that you bring properties more into conforming not letting them be more non-conforming which is what is happening right here.