AUGUSTA – Maine Supreme Court justices ruled Friday that the Fayette Board of Appeals was ambiguous and in error when it denied a building permit for a home on Lovejoy Pond. The case was sent back to the board.
Mitchell Phaiah was denied a permit in 2003 because the town contended its 1991 permit had expired and setback standards adopted in 2000 made the land unbuildable. He asked for a variance to the setback standards from the appeals board and was denied because he failed to show he would suffer undue hardship.
Phaiah appealed to Kennebec County Superior Court, which overturned the appeals board decision, saying there are no legal grounds for establishing an expiration date for a building permit.
The high court agreed. It also found that the Board of Appeals’ decision was ambiguous because the board circled the statement on the form that “the land in question cannot yield reasonable return unless a variance is granted” but also wrote beside it, “However, (Phaiah) has proposed a project that the board considers to be more than a reasonable return.”
The high court said the handwritten statement “is ambiguous at best.”
Phaiah’s lawyer, Keith Varner, said Friday that, “I certainly think we won majority of the case. The board obviously found that he could not get reasonable return,” he said. It seems to me we’ll be getting a building permit.”
Town lawyer David Sanders said the decision doesn’t mean that Phaiah would get a building permit. The board could determine that reasonable return would be pitching a tent on the property, he said.
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