TRURO — The owners of 3 pristine acres overlooking the bay at Fisher Beach are making another attempt to build a house there despite opposition from neighbors and concerns over environmental and cultural impacts.
The lot at 9B Benson Road, purchased by Willie and Gloria Cater of Brookline in 1979 for $46,000, has no frontage on a public way. Its only access is a right-of-way established in 1899, and while it has never been used, Land Court Judge Gordon Piper ruled in 2007 that the right-of-way was still valid.
But because deeds didn’t identify the exact location of the right-of-way, Piper set it as the shortest distance from the Cater property to a public road. That right-of-way, 12 feet wide and with a steeper grade than is allowed by the town, runs through the Benson Road properties of Lucy Clark, Stephen Loffredo, and the Truro Conservation Trust.
Attorney Robin Reid, representing the Caters, tried unsuccessfully at a Nov. 15 planning board meeting to steer clear of the right-of-way issues, arguing that the only matter before the board was approval of a preliminary subdivision plan.
The Caters want to divide their property into two lots, building a four-bedroom house on one and donating the other to the conservation trust, which owns an adjacent parcel.
The Caters asked that planning board members Jack Riemer and Paul Kiernan recuse themselves because both had been vocal in their opposition during review of an earlier request. Neither was on the planning board at the time. Kiernan also lives near the property.
Both refused to recuse themselves, saying they had checked with the state Ethics Commission and filed the necessary disclosures with the town clerk. Both spoke against the proposal on Nov. 15, focusing on the property’s access despite Reid’s protestations.
“This is a private right-of-way, not a street or a subdivision road,” Reid said. “We have a right-of-way granted by the court, and we intend to exercise that.”
Kiernan and Riemer said the town’s subdivision regulations, which set road width at 40 feet, would still apply to what would essentially be a 550-foot-long driveway.
“The last time an orphan subdivision was approved was 1970 for the estate of Josephine Hopper,” said Kiernan. “Since that time there have been no such subdivisions because of the problem of access for safety vehicles.”
Fred Gaechter, president of the conservation trust, expressed concern about a nearby wildlife corridor. “We either own or have a restriction on all that land, including the Hopper house and the Kline house,” Gaechter said. The construction would cause considerable environmental damage, he said.
Chuck Steinman and John Marksbury opposed the plan in a letter. They urged the board to view the donation “skeptically, as a Trojan horse.” By donating the parcel, they argued, the Caters would lower their taxes.
“This is no ordinary piece of land, even accounting for its prize views,” Steinman and Marksbury wrote. “It forms the focal point in the open stretch of heathland that gave famed painter Edward Hopper inspiration for his Truro paintings as he looked out across it from the large studio window.”
The 35-acre stretch, running from Stephens Way, where the Hopper house sits, to Benson Road, is known as the “Hopper landscape.”
Steinman and Marksbury attached a 2007 letter from the Mass. Historical Commission, which deemed the tract eligible for listing as a potential historic district. The letter called the land “of exceptional significance associated with one of the most important American painters of the 20th century.”
Lawyers representing Clark and Loffredo brought up the property’s lack of frontage, the effects of the proposed access, and safety issues related to the steep grade of the driveway.
Barbara Carboni, Truro’s town planner and land use counsel, said she had met with the preservation expert from the Cape Cod Commission to discuss the proposal. The board agreed to request technical assistance from the commission.
Board members also plan to walk the proposed right-of-way but set no date for it. The review process and discussion will continue after the site walk.
