‘Orphan Annie' decision tabled

Friday, Nov. 27, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by CAROL HARVAT The "Orphan Annie" cottage on Chestnut Avenue in North Beach. The decision whether to remove the historic designation of the cottage was "tabled indefinitely" at this month's town council meeting. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Once again "Orphan Annie," a cottage on Chestnut Street in North Beach, was placed aside like an orphan as the town of North Beach decided to put off the request for the removal of its historic designation during its November town council meeting.

It was on the agenda as an action item at the meeting, and when Mayor Mike Bojokles asked the council for a decision, council member Jane Hagen motioned to "table the request indefinitely" and the council approved.

Prior to the vote, Bojokles explained that the owners of the home wanted the historic designation taken off "because they have had trouble selling the home because of the historic designation" and no questions were asked when he offered for any comments or questions at the meeting.

"We'll pick this back up when we have more information," Bojokles said.

Two days prior to the town meeting, town attorney John Shay wrote an e-mail to the owners stating, "The law is written; now the council has no option but to deny your removal request. They therefore intend to amend the statute to provide for clearer removal standards. Therefore they suggest you withdraw your present request or ask that it be tabled indefinitely." The owners can then resubmit the request when the law is changed and the council would take it up again at that point, he wrote.

The "town cannot seem to make decisions and they are afraid that this might set a precedent if they allowed the designation to be removed," stated owner Carol Wyant in an e-mail.

Wyant owns the cottage with her husband Daniel, who has become increasing ill and has been hospitalized in the past several months. She has said they are not able to take care of the cottage any more.

Wyant, who began the process for the removal of the historic designation last June, has been waiting for the town's decision since North Beach Historic Preservation Commission denied her request for removal of the designation in August, stating in a letter that the house still meets the criteria under which it was designated historic in 2001.

Wyant, who lives in Laurel, said she and her husband placed the cottage they owned for 35 years on the market this year because they can no longer keep up the house due to failing health, which they have considered a "hardship" and reason for removal of the historic designation under town ordinance.

Due to the house's designation, modifications like adding a second story cannot be made to the 619 square foot 1920s cottage. The Wyants' real estate agent, Norma Hald, testified at a public hearing on removal of the designation last month, saying it has been difficult to sell the cottage because modifications cannot be made under the historic designation.

Both Hald and the Wyants have said they believed the ordinance states that the house can be removed due to a hardship condition of the Wyants' ill health, but Norma Jean Smith, the commission's chairman, said at the hearing that while the term "hardship" is in the ordinance, it is not written in the ordinance as a qualifying factor for removal of designation.

While some of the council members voiced empathy for the Wyants' situation at the public hearing, after reviewing the ordinance, they could not make a decision on the removal.

"The town needs to rewrite the statute to accommodate a situation like mine," Carol Wyant wrote in an e-mail.

charvat@somdnews.com