Rockport zoning board will visit Eden Road home before ruling on addition close to lot line

Rockport's Zoning Board of Appeals wants to see a house on Eden Road with its own eyes before it decides whether the owners can build an addition that would sit less than 2 feet from the back property line.

The board met on Zoom on Thursday, Oct. 8, a makeup date for a Sept. 30 meeting the town canceled because of a technical problem. The only hearing was for a house on Eden Road.

What the owners want to build

The owners want to take down a small mudroom at the back of the house and build a bigger addition in its place. It would make room for a larger kitchen, a half bath, a sauna and an art studio. The plans add about 651 square feet on the first floor and 399 square feet on the second floor, for storage and an office over the studio.

The studio would have a utility sink but no bathroom. The plans also add a drain line so a future owner could more easily turn the studio into a small separate apartment, called an accessory dwelling unit, with the town's approval.

Why it needs the board's OK

The house was built around 1895, before Rockport had zoning rules, so it does not meet some of today's rules. The lot is about 13,000 square feet, where the rules call for 20,000. One side of the house already sits 4 feet from the property line, where 15 feet is required.

The addition would leave just 1.8 feet between the house and the back property line. So the owners need two kinds of approval:

• A special permit, which lets the board approve changes to a building that already breaks the rules, as long as the change is not much worse for the neighborhood.
• A variance, which lets the board make an exception to a rule, here the required distance from the back line.

What their lawyer said

The owners' attorney said she had the same first reaction as the board. "Whoa, it goes all the way to the rear boundary line almost," she said. But she said the land behind the house is open. The owners have the right to use a strip of land behind the addition. Past that is Oaks Lane, a road that exists only on paper and was never built, and there are no buildings on the other side.

She said the house sits more than 113 feet back from the street, and building in front would mean redoing the house and crowding the septic system. She said the neighbors on both sides and two across the street sent letters supporting the plan.

The attorney also said the state law on variances was recently changed. She said it now asks the board to weigh the benefit to the owner and the public, including adding housing, against any harm to the neighborhood. Acting Chair Britta Cahoon later said the variance rules have "changed greatly." She called it "kind of a whole new world."

What the board asked

Cahoon said less than 2 feet from a property line "is very close" and asked whether the addition could be made smaller. The owners said they had already shrunk the studio as much as they could for the size of the art one of them makes. Another member asked whether the right to use the land behind the house would stay with the property if it were sold. Cahoon said she believed it would.

No one from the public spoke.

What comes next

The board did not vote. Members plan to visit the property Monday, Oct. 12, at 4:30 p.m. At a site visit the board only looks; it does not discuss the case. The owners agreed to mark where the corner of the addition would go.

The hearing continues Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m. on Zoom. The link will be on the agenda on the town's website.

The board sitting on the case: Cahoon, Tacy San Antonio, Laura Moisin, Erin O'Connell and Richard York. The board also approved its Aug. 26 minutes.

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the meeting online and checked names against the agenda and the board's past minutes. This story was produced with the help of AI tools and checked against the documents listed below. If you see an error, tell us at [email protected].