Appeals board votes house built on waterfront is illegal

Construction cannot continue in Hollywood

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The two-story brick home was started in 1986, but was never fully finished and the St. Mary’s County Department of Land Use and Growth Management put a stop-work order on the house last year, saying the building permit had lapsed.

The zoning appeals board ruled that the building permit did expire, that there was never a vested right to continue its construction and turned down an application for after-the-fact approval.

The house cannot be finished where it is now, but it could be physically relocated farther away from the water.

The decision can be appealed to circuit court.

The unfinished house is in within 100 feet of the shoreline. Chesapeake Bay Critical Area regulations prohibit structures in the buffer, but the foundation of the house was poured before the regulations were adopted locally in 1990.

‘‘It’s a rock and a hard spot for the board” and all involved, said George Allan Hayden Sr., chairman of the board.

‘‘Can he keep the house there?” asked board member George Edmonds.

The land use staff said no.

‘‘I don’t feel the house should be completely destroyed,” said Gertrude Scriber, board member.

‘‘You’re destroying their retirement,” said Chris Longmore, representing Roy and Jane Hart, 72 and 65. He asked the board to ‘‘apply the law in a compassionate way.” The couple worked the house over a period of years as finances allowed.

If the appeals board had ruled there was a vested right, the house could have been completed, whether or not the building permit expired. But the board had a hard time separating the two matters, as its attorney George Sparling advised.

‘‘I don’t know if we can separate the two,” said board member Wayne Miedzinski.

Once Roy Hart stopped work on the house, he lost the vested right, said Ronald Delahay, board member. ‘‘I think he abandoned it for a period of time,” he said.

Sometime after 1988, ‘‘there was a lack of building activity during that time ... and the building permit expired,” Hayden said.

‘‘I don’t think anything built after 2002 should remain,” Miedzinski said. ‘‘You have to pay for your mistakes.”

The house only needs insulation, drywall and the kitchen installed to be completed.

The vote for an after-the-fact approval was 3-2 with Edmonds and Scriber voting no. The vote to deny any vested right was 3-2 with Hayden and Edmonds voting no.

The Harts live on the property in another structure, an apartment over a garage, off Clarke’s Landing Road.