Snelgrove Permit Amendment

Vermont Superior Court·Decided July 18, 2008·No. 25-1-07 Vtec·Published

Opinion

STATE OF VERMONT

ENVIRONMENTAL COURT

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In re: Snelgrove Permit Amendment } Docket No. 25-1-07 Vtec (Appeal of LeBlanc, et al.) } }

Decision and Order

Appellants David LeBlanc, Christine Fortin, James LeBlanc and Herman LeBlanc (Appellants) appealed from a decision of the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) of the Town of Newport granting a zoning permit amendment to Appellee-Applicant Robert Snelgrove for an as-built boathouse. Appellants are represented by Duncan Frey Kilmartin, Esq.; Appellee-Applicant (Applicant) is represented by Christopher D. Roy, Esq; and the Town of Newport is represented by William Boyd Davies, Esq.

This Court’s decision and order of July 18, 2008, resolved Questions 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 of the Statement of Questions. By that decision and order, Question 3 was dismissed as moot, and Questions 4 and 6 were resolved in favor of Applicant that the issues raised by those questions had not been before the ZBA and therefore were not before the Court in the present proceeding.

Question 7 was resolved in favor of Applicant that the 2005 Permit had become final without appeal and could not be challenged in the present appeal, that is, that Applicant remains entitled to have what was applied for and approved in the 2005 Permit: a 15’ x 35’ single-story boathouse located five feet northerly of the former boathouse. See, e.g., In re Appeal of Adams, No. 145-9-03 Vtec, slip op. at 3 (Vt. Envtl. Ct. Mar. 21, 2005) (Wright, J.) (citing Town of Bennington v. Hanson-Walbridge Funeral Home, Inc., 139 Vt. 288, 292–93 (1981)). The construction allowed by the 2005 Permit continues to qualify as a nonconforming structure (as defined in 24 V.S.A. § 4303(14)

and § 602 of the Zoning Bylaws) as having been improperly authorized as a result of error of the Zoning Administrator, because the new construction was proposed to be located within the side setback and should have been referred to the ZBA under § 404(2) of the Zoning Bylaws.

Because, under the unappealed 2005 Permit, all that Applicant was authorized to construct was a replacement 15’ x 35’ single-story boathouse, located five feet farther north than the existing boathouse, Question 2 was resolved in favor of Appellants that the as-built boathouse represents an expansion within the setback area that is far larger than that authorized by the 2005 Permit. The remainder of Question 2 was also resolved in favor of Appellants that the as-built boathouse increases the volume of noncomplying structure occupying the required setback area beyond that of the former boathouse, and therefore does not qualify to apply for conditional use approval as a permissible alteration or expansion of a nonconforming structure under § 404(2) of the Zoning Bylaws. However, material facts as to the specific measurements of the former boathouse remained for trial; that is, the Court was unable to rule on summary judgment as to how much larger the as-built boathouse was, as compared with the former boathouse.

After the decision on summary judgment, Questions 1 and 5 of the Statement of Questions remained for trial, as well as the facts relating to the size of the former boathouse. Applicant also moved for reconsideration or clarification of the summary judgment order; by agreement of the parties that motion was postponed to be considered after the trial, together with any post-trial memoranda.

An evidentiary hearing was held in this matter before Merideth Wright, Environmental Judge. A site visit was taken on the hearing day with the parties and their representatives. The parties were given the opportunity to submit written memoranda and requests for findings, in addition to their memoranda on the motion for reconsideration or clarification. Upon consideration of the evidence as illustrated by

the site visit, and of the written memoranda and requests for findings filed by the parties, the Court finds and concludes as follows. The parties provided the Zoning Bylaws last amended in February of 2006 (the 2006 Bylaws) as the version of the Zoning Bylaws applicable to this appeal.1

The 2006 Bylaws define the entire Town of Newport as a single zoning district.

§ 201. Section 206 establishes dimensional requirements for lots and structures according to each general use category. For dwelling uses, the side yard setback and rear yard setbacks are 25 feet, and the building height maximum is 35 feet. § 206.1. The only structures for which a reduced setback is provided are utility sheds not exceeding 200 square feet in area, for which all yard setbacks are five feet, and for which the maximum height is eight feet. § 206.4. The 2006 Bylaws do not establish any separate lakeshore setback requirement or boathouse exemption.

Applicant’s property is located at 5706 Lake Road on the westerly shore of Lake Memphremagog in the Town of Newport. When Applicant acquired the property in 1976, it included an existing single-family house and a then-existing boathouse (the former boathouse2) located near the lake shore. A small stream entered the back of the former boathouse, dropping four to five feet in elevation to its outlet at the lake level at the front of the former boathouse.

1 The parties have not provided any earlier zoning ordinance from which the Court could determine when the boathouse became nonconforming; for the purposes of this decision the Court will assume that the regulations in effect in October of 2005, when the first application was filed, also contained the 25-foot side setback requirement. The 2006 Bylaws also do not appear to contain any new waiver provisions as allowed by 24 V.S.A. § 4414(8). 2 The boathouse was originally built in 1931, and was in place as of Applicant’s purchase of the property in 1976; the superstructure above the foundation was renovated in 1992, but not changed in size or shape. All references to the “former” boathouse dimensions in this decision refer to the structure as renovated in 1992.

Under the 2006 Bylaws the house is categorized as a permitted single-family dwelling use and the former boathouse is categorized as a permitted accessory use. § 206, Permitted Uses (1), (8).

Appellants’ property is the adjacent lakeshore property to the south. The deeds in evidence suggest that the deeded LeBlanc-Snelgrove property line runs from the lake westwards along what was the south side of the former boathouse, and then northwards along or near the back or west side of the former boathouse, before proceeding from there towards the west. However, any dispute as to the location of the property line or as to the parties’ respective property rights, including whether any of the construction related to the boathouse encroaches on Appellants’ property, is not before this Court in this appeal; it must be raised, if at all, in Superior Court. See 4 V.S.A. § 1001(b); e.g., In re Leiter Subdivision Permit, No. 85-4-07 Vtec, slip op. at 4 (Vt. Envtl. Ct. July 25, 2008) (Durkin, J.) (citing Appeal of Monty, Nos. 7-1-04 Vtec and 47-3- 04 Vtec (Vt. Envtl. Ct. Jan. 24, 2006) (Durkin, J.)).

Because the former boathouse was located at or near the LeBlanc-Snelgrove property line, it was entirely within the twenty-five-foot-wide side yard setback area. Under Article IV of the 2006 Bylaws, the former boathouse was therefore a nonconforming structure that was entitled to continue, provided that the conditions of § 4043 are met.

The former boathouse had a low concrete foundation or concrete footings, extending approximately two-and-a-half to three feet above the surrounding ground level at the lake end of the building, and extending approximately three feet above the surrounding ground level at the northwest corner of the building adjacent to the opening through which the stream entered the back of the building. A single-story clapboard structure was built on the concrete footings; the structure opened onto the

3Article IV only contains § 404, which has three subsections; there is no § 401, § 402, or § 403.

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