Tag: Planning Board Appeal

Where Things Stand

It seems like a good time to share where things stand. Still plenty of balls in the air, and hopeful the court will issue an injunction. Learn more here:

You may be wondering where things stand. Particularly since this week, Tyler Smith’s “erector set” is going up in town. The appeals are slowly working through the courts. Plus we still await town action on several shortcomings members have identified for them.

Our focus remains on ensuring a compliant building. Thankfully, the courts, like the state, will look objectively at facts, which should work in our favor. Let’s recap what is still in play.

Superior Court Activity

Where things stand at the Superior Court. The Superior Court is currently reviewing two cases and two related requests for temporary injunctions. Our legal team submitted a brief on Tuesday summarizing another good reason why we are likely to prevail. This may be enough to secure a temporary injunction barring further work pending resolution of the underlying cases. One case is the appeal of the Planning Board site plan approval. At issue here are myriad misses in application of the Land Use Ordinance. The most notable miss is failure to consider alternative designs to comply with scenic view provisions. You can learn more here. The second case is seeking application of the 2020 citizens’ initiatives. The argument here is whether a state statute limiting retroactivity to 45 days should apply during a pandemic. The fact is the building permit was issued on March 10, 2021, long after your vote approving the ordinance changes. Since the building permit is the final approval, the 45 day limit is moot. You can learn more here.

Activity with Town of Rockport

Where things stand with the Town of Rockport. The Friends also have ongoing efforts at the town office around: the building permit issuance, parking implications of two missing site plan reviews, and the Planning Board’s misreading of the 2012 parking allocation for Union Hall. You can learn more about the permit appeal here and the unaddressed parking issues here. Regrettably, with respect to the parking issues, the town has been singularly non-responsive. In the absence of a town manager, for the moment, we suggest you send your thoughts on these matters directly to Debra Hall, Select Board Chair. It is unconscionable that the town, when presented evidence of process failures, should do nothing.

Radio Silence…Not Really

As the Superior Court considers a temporary injunction to stop construction, developer races to eliminate scenic views and fill the space to intimidate any future town review of the project.

Radio silence, no doubt it feels that way as you watch frantic construction on the disputed hotel site. The truth is entirely different. As you know the Friends of Rockport and its members have a number of initiatives relating to the hotel. You know our effort to have the town enforce the Land Use Ordinance changes approved in the last town meeting. Plus, the appeal of the planning board approval in Knox County Superior Court. We are only there because the zoning board of appeals ruled against us. These two initiatives include a request for a temporary injunction to halt construction pending a ruling on the each case. The radio silence stems from waiting on that temporary injunction. That is why the frantic construction work because they want to be ‘too far along’ to apply the LUO now.

The latest, effort to rein in the misapplication of the Land Use Ordinance is an appeal of the building permit. This appeal is predicated on the myriad changes from the approved site plan to the building permit application. This, too, will go first to the zoning board of appeals. This time, though, the rules are somewhat different, and they are not bound by the planning board record.

We will continue to keep you apprised of all these efforts, and thank you for your continued support of FOR. We expect a lot more action now, and promise no more radio silence!