PARIS – Selectmen are taking the Board of Appeals to court over a subdivision dispute.

Recently the appeals board gave the go-ahead for Chris Stearns of Paris to leave the access road to his approved three-acre subdivision a dirt road. By doing so, it disregarded a request by Town Manager Sharon Jackson that Stearns pave the road, which is a legal requirement under the subdivision ordinance.

On Tuesday, selectmen voted to appeal the board’s decision to Oxford County Superior Court. Jackson said she was not sure what the costs would be in the civil case.

The road is 650 feet long and connects Stearns’ three-acre parcel to Mason Drive, which connects to Kilgore Road, which comes out onto Oxford Street.

Mason Drive and Kilgore Road are both private roads, and both are unpaved.

Paul Thornfeldt, chairman of the Board of Appeals, said he made the decision to give Stearns leeway in the matter based on logic rather than on the town ordinance.

“Having him spend that kind of money to pave a section of road in the middle of the woods didn’t make any common sense to us,” Thornfeldt said. “Even though the appeals board is not supposed to use common sense – they are supposed to use the law – we had to vote the way we felt.”

But Jackson said the law should be followed.

“That is the way it was written, that is the way it has to be followed, that is the way it was adopted,” Jackson said. “Your opinion, my opinion has nothing to do with this.”

Part of the issue has to do with possible future expenses the town could incur as subdivisions multiply in town and build new roads.

A committee is reviewing the subdivision ordinance, which town officials have complained is woefully out of date and needs to be amended to make it comply with state laws. Jackson, who is on the review committee, said the group is looking at everything in the ordinance, including roads.

“We’re looking at road issues closely so the town ultimately doesn’t have to pay for subdivision roads,” she said.

Thornfeldt said this past year the Board of Appeals allowed another subdivision to sidestep the ordinance and not pave a driveway.

But Jackson said it is impossible to compare two subdivisions, and that the subdivision of Robert Ripley, who was allowed to keep his driveway a dirt road, met certain standards for allowable variances that Stearns did not.

Mike Starn of the Maine Municipal Association said the situation of a town board challenging another board is fairly unusual.

“They determined it is important to the community that they need to uphold the intent of the ordinance,” Starn said. “It doesn’t happen a lot but occasionally it does.”

Stearns, who has built one house on a lot and said he would like to build one more, said he feels badly that Paris taxpayers have to be involved.

“It is not like people are trying to get away with breaking the law,” he said, adding that he thought the town was taking a militant approach to his situation.

To pave the driveway will cost more than $30,000, Stearns said.

He said he was not sure what he would do with the property, which he bought last March, if he wound up having to pave the access road.