BOSTON (AP) – The state Appeals Court on Monday rejected a bid by a friend of former President Clinton to block a huge vacation home from being built near his estate on Martha’s Vineyard.

Developer Richard Friedman was one of more than a dozen people that own homes near Oyster Pond, in Edgartown, who sued to stop the construction of a 15,600-square-foot house in their neighborhood.

Friedman has loaned his island home to President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who spent several summer vacations there during their White House years.

His would-be neighbor, Robert Levine, co-founded Cabletron Systems Inc. with New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Craig Benson. In addition to the huge home, Levine plans to build a boat house, pool, pool house and tennis court on his 34-acre parcel.

Friedman and his neighbors sued the Edgartown Conservation Commission after the board approved Levine’s plan. They said the developers violated bylaws by failing to show that the project would not harm wildlife or cause “the loss or disruption or natural and historic views and vistas.” They also alleged that the property is a “priority habitat” for rare species and vegetation, including the eastern box turtle and the Nantucket shadbush.

A Superior Court judge ruled that the plaintiffs had not shown that the commission’s approval of the project had resulted in any injury to them.

The Appeals Court agreed Monday, ruling that the plaintiffs had not shown that they “will suffer injuries separate from the town as a whole.”

AP-ES-11-29-04 1344EST