TRURO — Attorney Ben Zehnder did his best to make his client’s proposal to build a 5,100-square-foot house at 17 Coast Guard Road sound like a good thing for the neighborhood.
Zehnder told the zoning board of appeals at a hearing on April 25 that the one-story house would replace six old cottages, two mobile homes, and “a bunch of sheds” that are now on the property — the remnants of Hi-Land View cottage colony.
The property’s new owner, who paid $5 million for the 6.3-acre parcel, wants to demolish five of the six late-1950s cottages and convert the remaining one into a pool house.
Boston attorney Rachel Kalin, as a trustee of Outer Shore Nominee Trust, which is the listed property owner at the Barnstable Registry of Deeds, had filed requests for two special permits. The first would allow the demolition of the cottages, conversion of the remaining cottage to a pool house, and construction of a single-family house. The second would be for exceeding the gross floor area allowed by right in the National Seashore District.
Under Truro’s zoning bylaw, the gross floor area allowed by right on the property is 4,260 square feet. The bylaw allows for up to an additional 1,000 square feet by special permit.
The ZBA took no action last week, but members generally reacted favorably to what was on the table.
“It’s a big structure, with five bedrooms,” said chair Arthur Hultin. “Is this a single-family home or a resort?” Zehnder assured him it was not a commercial endeavor.
When Hultin argued that town meeting voters had expressed their desire to limit house size by passing the bylaw provision, two of his colleagues didn’t fully agree.
“It certainly was the intent of the town to limit size,” said Darrell Shedd, “but in the bylaw the additional size is allowed by lot size.”
Shedd also argued that the house would be out of sight. “In this particular property, you can’t even come close to seeing [the house] from Coast Guard Road, and you can’t see it from the ocean,” said Shedd.
Curtis Hartman agreed, recalling concerns aired during discussion of the bylaw and the town’s comprehensive plan. “The concern was, ‘Let us not make Truro visually the Hamptons,’ and this piece of property doesn’t create any difficulty that way,” said Hartman. “This does not violate the spirit or intent of the bylaw, as I understand it.”
Also speaking in favor of the applicant was Virginia Frazier, who said she could see “no reason why we shouldn’t allow a special permit.”
Asked about the views of Cape Cod National Seashore officials, Zehnder said their only comment had been that they didn’t want to see the property subdivided and used for multiple dwellings.
The board asked about a discrepancy in the lot size on the documents under review. The assessor has the lot at 7.3 acres, while the project engineers have it as 6.3 acres. Bryan Weiner, project manager at Coastal Engineering Co., said that the assessor uses the mean low-water mark as the property line while the engineers measured to where the lot meets the beach.
No one from the public commented on the proposal. When asked, attorney Kalin would not disclose the name of the new property owner.
The zoning board will continue review of the special permit request on May 23. The planning board opened its site plan review of the proposal on April 20 and will continue on May 18.
