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Hostel must close
Banner Daily Update posted Tues. Aug. 14
By Derek Burritt
Banner Staff
EASTHAM—The 40-year-old hostel on Goody Hallet Dr. must close its doors Sept. 15.
At a three-and-a-half hour public hearing Aug. 9 at Town Hall, the zoning board of appeals upheld building inspector Frank De Felice’s June 20 decision that the youth hostel must “obtain a special permit/variance . . . to continue operating” in a residential zone and then denied the hostel’s request for a special permit.
The board voted two — in favor and three against a motion by ZBA member Kathryn Sette to issue a special permit conditioned by seasonal operation, a prohibition on busses from entering the facility and the erection of a fence around the property.
Chair Victoria Dalmas expressed the board’s “difficult position” with regards to its duty to uphold the town zoning laws, and encouraged Deborah Ruhe, executive director at Hostelling International USA, and her attorney Myer Singer to pursue a variance, which is the proper means by which the hostel may be allowed to continue operating after Sept. 15.
When the planning board in 2000 allowed then owner of the property Jacqueline Duffek to reconfigure the lot size, it didn’t address the repercussions of the hostel losing its grandfathered pre-existing condition. Due to this action, since 2000 the hostel has been subject to the most current zoning bylaws, although the issue has just recently been brought to light. According to current bylaws, a campground, which is the nearest classification for the hostel, must operate on 4 acres of land. The hostel is now on less than 2.8 acres.
For more on this story, read this week’s Banner.
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Aug 9th, 2007