The Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals (Z.B.A.) has scheduled a public hearing on the 104 Lakeshore Drive Extension Owner/Occupant’s Application for a “Special Permit” “to allow for the extension, alteration, or change to a pre-existing non-conforming structure for the purposes of building a Single Family House” on that lot. That lot and surrounding parcels can be viewed using the online Sterling GIS mapping platform– https://www.axisgis.com/SterlingMA/
This brings back memories of the 55 Lakeshore Drive “Special Permit” 2007-2008 Carnival of Illegalities. Back then the owners/occupants of 55 Lakeshore Drive applied to Sterling Z.B.A. for a “Special Permit” to modify their existing non-conforming cottage on that property. Their hired mouthpiece, an out-of-town engineer, told the Z.B.A. at a public hearing that an addition, only, would be made to that existing structure. He lied. After the Z.B.A. issued the “Special Permit” the owners/occupants went to then-Sterling Building Inspector/Code Enforcement Officer Mark Brodeur and applied for a permit to demolish their cottage. Brodeur, instead of issuing a “Cease and Desist” Order to the owners/occupants for their planned “Special Permit” violation and fraud on the Z.B.A., granted, illegally, the demolition permit and further violated Massachusetts regulations by failing to give required Notice of the demolition permit to the adjoining lot owners, as provided by 780 CMR 112.2– https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/09/us/780001_69991_77183.pdf Thereafter the existing cottage was burned to the ground as part of a Sterling Fire Department training exercise. In June 2008 Brodeur issued an illegal building permit to the owners/occupants who then built a new 1800 square foot, two-story home on the lot. Despite these serial illegalities the Sterling Z.B.A. never revoked its January 2008 “Special Permit.”
THE STERLING Z.B.A. AS A DOORMAT FOR DEVELOPERS– TWO MORE RECENT EXAMPLES
A. CIDER HILL ESTATES OFF REDSTONE HILL ROAD
Several years ago local developer Simpson applied to the Sterling Z.B.A. for a “Special Permit” to construct “Cider Hill Estates,” a “multi-family development,” off Redstone Hill Road, despite the fact that three (3) separate abutters owned driveways within 150 feet of Simpson’s planned entryway into that development. Sterling’s Protective (Zoning) By-Law, Article 4.2.3(c)(3), provides in pertinent part that “Any road or driveway serving 12 or more dwelling units…shall be separated from all other driveways…by at least 150 feet” (emphasis added). Notwithstanding all that, the Sterling Z.B.A., in bogus fashion, granted Simpson a “Special Permit.” Simpson went on to abuse nearby homeowners by mechanically shattering ledge-rock on that property over a course of weeks, violating the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Noise Regulation– https://casetext.com/regulation/code-of-massachusetts-regulations/department-310-cmr-department-of-environmental-protection/title-310-cmr-700-air-pollution-control/section-710-u-noise Sterling’s then-Code Enforcement Officer, payroll patriot Sarah Culgin, failed to enforce it.
B. FOLEY’S OAK HILL DUPLEXES ALONGSIDE CLINTON ROAD
Not long after “Cider Hill Estates” went in local developer Brian Foley applied to the Sterling Z.B.A. for an “Earth Removal” “Variance” to remove thousands of tons of solid granite from Oak Hill, near Clinton Road, for the purposes of carving out platforms for two duplexes and their septic systems. Such “Earth Removal” is not a permitted use in that area zoned “Rural Residential”. Foley knew damned well that he bought a solid granite hillside. It is a well-known principle of Massachusetts zoning law that “one cannot create his own ‘hardship'” in an effort to claim a “Variance.” See generally Sheppard vs. Zoning Board of Appeal of Boston et al., 81 Mass.App.Ct. 394 (2012) http://masscases.com/cases/app/81/81massappct394.html Despite the obvious operative facts, the Sterling Z.B.A. granted Foley a “Variance” anyway. Thereafter Foley spent months shattering, mechanically, that hillside granite, likewise violating the Massachusetts Noise Regulation, neighboring homes being located immediately adjacent and across Clinton Road. Again Sterling’s then-Code Enforcement Officer, payroll patriot Sarah Culgin, failed to enforce that regulation. Those on the Sterling Z.B.A. who voted for that abomination should be required to display on their foreheads three little stick-on yellow stars: one for utter gutlessness in approving that “Variance”; another for startling callousness in promoting Foley’s months-long noise abuses despite the close proximity of neighboring homes; and the third for outright stupidity in supporting the placement of two duplex septic systems directly over quarried-out granite bedrock.
SOME ADVICE FOR ABUTTERS/NEIGHBORS TO PROPOSED STERLING CONSTRUCTION/DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
The Sterling Planning Board–now with two developers on it–and the Sterling Z.B.A. are not your friends. Monitor applications, hearings, processes, and developments closely. Be prepared to band together and pool your financial resources in order to hire competent zoning-law lawyers to protect your interests by bringing court challenges. Most challenged “Variances” are overturned by courts, and many “Special Permits” are overturned too.
J.G.
STERLING, MASSACHUSETTS, OVERWATCH 