A controversial residential construction project in Southwest Harbor’s downtown village has prompted ongoing challenges from next door homeowners who are opposed to it, pitting neighboring seasonal residents against each other.
The town appeals board this month denied the first challenge filed by the abutters, William and Martha ‘Kay’ MacIntosh, of a guest house that is being added to their neighbor’s home and threatening what they say is the privacy of their own nearby guest room.
The board ruled that the couple did not file their appeal within the required 30 days of the building permit being issued last December. But the MacIntoshes are not giving up, and are asking the town to reconsider their appeal.
It’s not the first time seasonal MDI residents have come out strongly against a residential project.
But this project, which will have a modern look at odds with the more traditional properties around it, has demonstrated the unexpected ways in which a recently passed state law that has made it easier to build accessory dwelling units — for the purpose of addressing Maine’s housing shortage — may be helping to stir up conflict between the residents of wealthier seasonal communities.
The owner of 72 Clark Point Road, New York real estate attorney Justin Podjasek, is building a guesthouse on the foundation of a former greenhouse on the property that, according to town records, was granted a variance from local building codes in 2012 — when both properties were owned by the same person. The anticipated cost of the guesthouse project is $750,000, according to town records.
The dispute was first reported by the Quietside Journal.
The MacIntoshes, who spend winters in Chestertown, Maryland and own the house at 76 Clark Point Road, say that despite the 2012 variance, the town’s code enforcement officer should not have granted Podjasek a building permit. The project is going up right next to a window in the guest room above their garage, which will negate their guests’ privacy, they said.
The greenhouse was built within two feet of the Macintoshs’ property line, in violation of the 15-foot setback requirement, and despite the granted variance it remained a nonconforming structure, the McIntoshes maintain. Because of this, the town’s rules say Podjasek’s application to build a guesthouse on the nonconforming greenhouse footprint should have been considered by the Planning Board, not the code enforcement officer, the Macintoshes said.
In their appeal documents, the MacIntoshes say that the decision to approve the building permit by Code Enforcement Officer John Larson should therefore be nullified, which also would nullify the 30-day appeal deadline.
The couple says the guesthouse actually is being built less than a foot away from their property line — which is not consistent with the 2012 variance granted by the town — and that there is a question of whether the variance was properly granted to begin with.
Podjasek did not respond to a request for comment on the controversy. The MacIntoshes’ attorney, Patrick Lyons, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Larson said Monday that he granted the building permit in December, at least in part, because of a new state law that went into effect in 2023 that allows accessory dwelling units to be built on residential lots that already have homes on them — which was passed to address Maine’s statewide shortage of year-round housing.
Larson said that the new guesthouse is under the neighborhood’s 25-foot height limit — which the Macintoshes dispute — and, because it is being built on the pre-existing footprint of the former greenhouse, it does not have more nonconformity than the greenhouse did.
“I don’t see it as a change in use,” he said.
Larson said the guesthouse will have a modern architectural look, including a rooftop deck, and will stand out from the more traditional houses that surround it, but the town does not have any restrictions on architectural styles.
The code enforcement officer noted that the MacIntoshes first contacted him about the project in February — which still was beyond the 30-day window to appeal his building permit — but for some reason decided not to file their appeal until May.
The MacIntoshes said they are asking the appeals board to reconsider their petition, but are not sure when the board might do so. If the town sticks with its position, they said, they likely will appeal the matter in court.
“We’re just unhappy enough that we’re prepared to take this as far as we can,” Kay MacIntosh said.
