NORWAY – Debi Irons is taking a stand and has filed an appeal against a building permit issued for an apartment house next door to her Art Moves dance studio on Cottage Street.
Irons could not be reached directly for comment Thursday or Friday. In a message left Friday afternoon, she said the appeal is a “last resort” on behalf of her own renters and students who attend classes at her studio.
In a letter to the Norway Board of Appeals, Irons asked that the permit allowing reconstruction at 15 Cottage St. be denied “on the grounds of health and safety.”
Irons pointed out that children, teenagers and people with special needs use her studio at 13 Cottage St. Through the years, she said that there have been numerous problems with the building at 15 Cottage St., which sits less than 20 feet away from her property.
Past problems include residents at 15 Cottage St. throwing glass bottles at her building, harassing people entering her building and blocking her parking lot or hitting cars parked there with motor vehicles, Irons said. A trash bin left close to the windows at 13 Cottage St. also has been a problem, she wrote. She also objects to “ongoing and constant foul language, violent and/or sexually deviant behavior within several feet of 13 Cottage St.”
If an appeal of the permit cannot be granted, Irons wrote, “I request that no more than 2 apartments be built in such close proximity to 13 Cottage St.” She also requested that trash receptacles be placed at least 20 feet from her building, that the rules of Section 8 housing be strictly enforced and that landlords Madeline Pratt and Elvira Miclon be required to build a wooden fence along the property line between the two buildings.
Reached on Friday, Pratt said, as she has in the past, that she cannot be held responsible for her tenants’ behavior. “Society stinks,” she said. “I don’t know anything that anybody can do to turn it back to the good old days. I don’t think anybody can.”
Pratt said several people will be at the appeals board meeting on her behalf, but she doesn’t plan to hire a lawyer. “Why go to the expense?” she asked.
Pratt also said she is simply offering a service, just as Irons does. She questioned what Irons hopes to gain through the appeal since her apartment building, which was devastated by fire Oct. 14, is well on its way to being rebuilt.
John Longely, chairman of the appeals board, provided a copy of Irons’ appeal Friday but declined to comment.
Ferg Lea, planning division director for the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, explained Friday that an appeals board is considered a quasi-judicial body and members typically are prohibited from speaking about an appeal.
“They’re not really supposed to discuss a case outside of their (public) hearing,” he said.
The meeting will be 7 p.m. May 11 at the Norway town office.
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