The Newcastle Board of Appeals has denied a variance request from the landlord of a Newcastle apartment building, placing the future of the complex in doubt.
Paul Sidelinger owns the building, known as Newcastle Center, through his corporation, Juloania Inc. According to the town, Juloania Inc. only has permits for six of the building’s 13 apartments.
The building also violates multiple Newcastle zoning regulations and has been in violation for several years, according to the town.
Maine law allows boards of appeals to grant a variance, or official permission to bypass regulations, when “the strict application of the ordinance,” in this case, the Newcastle land use ordinance, “would cause undue hardship.”
Maine law establishes a four-part test to determine whether an ordinance would cause undue hardship. The Newcastle Board of Appeals, after four meetings about the subject spanning more than six weeks, voted on each of the four parts Feb. 15.
Two parts of the test require that the property “cannot yield a reasonable return without a variance” and require that the hardship is “not the result of action taken by the applicant or a prior owner.”
The board decided Juloania Inc. did not pass those tests by votes of 4-0 and 2-1-1, respectively, according to the draft meeting minutes.
Sidelinger issued a written statement in response to a voice mail from The Lincoln County News.
“There are still some unanswered questions,” he said in the statement.
Sidelinger has said he assumed his apartments had all the necessary permits because, when he was building new apartments, he worked closely with the Newcastle code enforcement officer, obtaining plumbing permits and paying fees to the town.
“Why did the [code enforcement officer] not advise us, at that time, that a variance and building permits needed to be issued?” he said in the statement.
He noted that the town-assessed value of the property spiked in 2005, the same year he finished adding apartments, with an increase of almost $190,000 or 75 percent.
The increase indicates the town was aware of the new apartments, yet still did not bring any violations to his attention, he said. Town documents that might support his conclusion are missing, he said.
He also said the town did not ultimately discover the violations; he brought the violations to the town’s attention.
Finally, he said he continues to work to address fire safety violations. He has installed carbon monoxide detectors and “new and improved” smoke detectors in all the apartments and upgraded handrails on the outside stairs.
“A sprinkler system is scheduled to be installed late this month or early March,” he said.
Newcastle town attorney Peter Drum said Sidelinger will have 30 days from the receipt of written notice of the board’s decision to appeal the decision to superior court.
Sidelinger did not respond to an e-mailed question from The Lincoln County News about whether he plans to contest the decision.
The Newcastle Board of Selectmen and code enforcement officer have various options to deal with the violations, Drum said.
For example, the town can take levy of substantial fines against the property owner or attempt to resolve the matter through a consent agreement, which would probably involve a financial settlement of some kind.
