“This has been quite a task, and I commend you for your patience and understanding,” Finn said to the development team.
‘It’s absolutely nuts’
Barnstable Road resident Kathy Torraco took exception to Finn’s comments, noting that she would have preferred that the board “do more listening and be less appreciative of what the developer is doing. We, too, are being very patient.”
“This is the wrong development on a tiny lot in a residential area,” she said. “It’s the wrong thing for this neighborhood. I haven’t expressed any emotion until now, but this is unacceptable.”
Finn noted that proposed developments are “out of our hands when they’re 40Bs. We’re trying to do this in a friendly manner.”
“This is an unfortunate set of circumstances. It’s absolutely nuts,” ZBA member Richard Hennessey told Torraco. “This is not an appropriate location. We’re doing the best we can for the town of Hull, but we are confined by the regulations. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live in your neighborhood with this project coming down the pike. It’s ludicrous.”
Sprinkler system still a sticking point
A sticking point that remains is the sprinkler system requested by Fire Chief Chris Russo. Since the last discussion about this issue, a different, less-expensive system is under consideration.
However, while amenable overall, the developer needs more time to decide whether to include such a system in the development plan.
A key issue that was barely touched upon during this week’s hearing but has been a topic of much discussion during earlier meetings is an access easement across the neighboring property at 20 Ipswich Street.
The developer has planned to use this easement as an alternative access road to the proposed development and for the installation of utilities for the project.
Attorney addresses easement issue
In a recent letter written to the ZBA – also posted on the board’s link on the town website – representing a number of abutters, Attorney Allan Levin outlines why he believes the plan for 25 Ipswich Street cannot legally be approved due to easement issues, claiming that the developer “has no rights to use the easement.”
Levin said in the letter that this property was formerly part of a larger tract of land owned by Hulltop LLC, comprising what is currently 7 Salisbury Street, 20 Ipswich Street, and 25 Ipswich Street. The entire property is the former Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
In the deed transferring the property currently known as 20 Ipswich Street to Derek and Kelly Paris, reference was made to the easement, according to Levin, but “there was no ‘metes and bounds’ description of the easement, nor was the easement reserved for any other lots.”
Derek Paris – who strongly objects to allowing the developer to use the easement – attended the hearing this week.
“If I win in Land Court, I’ll be putting a fence around [my entire] property,” he said.
One ZBA member asked about the Land Court case, but the discussion headed in a different direction before he received clarification.
‘The easement does not exist’
As a result of his research, Levin claims that because “there is no approved/certified plan on record indicating the easement,” by law, “the easement does not exist.”
Even if the easement did exist, he explained, “the project has no rights to its use in any event. While the project may abut the easement, the project does not have any existing deed rights to the easement.”
Where the easement “either does not exist or provides no rights to the project, it is the abutters’ position that the project as proposed cannot legally be approved,” Levin’s letter states.
While the letter was not referred to nor read at Tuesday’s hearing, Finn remarked when this issue came up briefly, “The developer isn’t doing anything unless he gets the rights to the easement.”
The proposed conditions, with Hennessey emphasizing that they have not yet been decided, relate in part to both the easement and a sprinkler system.
When at 10 p.m. the discussion ramped up, Finn pointed out that after months of hearings, now was not the time to “get adversarial.”
“I’d like to land this plane onto a runway and not crash it into the Hudson River,” he said.
A replay of the ZBA hearing will be available at Hull Community Television’s website at www.hulltv.net.
