The Whitefield Board of Selectmen voted unanimously on Aug. 8 to seek an opinion from the town attorney regarding an issue involving a structure built too close to Weary Pond.
The structure, built this spring and alternately described as a gazebo and bird watching observatory, is an enclosed structure just over 16-feet-square with an attached six-foot porch. It has been reported to be anywhere from three to 15 feet from the pond.
Whitefield Code Enforcement Officer Arthur Strout approved a notice to build application for the gazebo, reportedly at the recommendation of the planning board, last August. However, the landowner’s application did not include a sketch of the structure or any indication of the structure’s setback from the pond. The applicant also requested approval for an open-air structure; the building currently on Weary Pond is enclosed with doors and windows, town officials said.
Strout did not visit the site until neighbors complained about the structure, officials said. “It wasn’t going to be a problem because it wasn’t going to be anything,” Strout told the selectmen.
The required setback from ponds for any structure is 100 feet by town ordinance. Any approved structure within 75 feet of a pond also requires special approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The gazebo was never brought before DEP, town officials said
“If the town had been doing what it was supposed to do, it wouldn’t have been approved and wouldn’t have needed to go to the state anyway,” said Frank Ober, vice chairman of the Whitefield Board of Selectmen at the Aug. 8 meeting.
The selectmen reviewed the minutes from an Aug. 18, 2010 meeting of the planning at which the gazebo was discussed. At that meeting, the planning board told the applicant to submit a notice to build application. Strout approved the notice to build before the planning board’s next meeting, so there is no further record of planning board discussions related to the structure.
The selectmen voted 4-0, with Chairman Steve McCormick absent to bring the matter to their attorney.
At issue at this time is whether the current planning board may revisit a year-old decision made by a board comprising different members. If they revisit the application, they “have to deny it” because of the setback violation, said Bob Bills, chairman of the planning board at the selectmen’s meeting.
The applicant may then go before the board of appeals to seek a variance.
