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Photo Kevin Mullaney
The view from the deck of the Hopper House. |
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New house plan threatens change to Hopper landscape
By Kevin Mullaney
Banner Correspondent
TRURO — A new battle is emerging here between people who spend a lot of money to buy a big piece of beachfront property to build a dream mansion and frustrated neighbors searching to preserve what will be forever lost.
Preliminary permits are being sought to build a 6,500-square-foot house overlooking Cape Cod Bay from the top of a hill on property at 25 Stephens Way in Truro, a parcel that stretches up several hundred feet from Cape Cod Bay, encompassing a total of nine acres.
A stone’s throw away, to the south, sits the famed Hopper House, meaning that the proposed residence, garage and pool will occupy the treasured “Hopper landscape,” the view from Edward Hopper’s north-facing studio window. Known worldwide through Hopper’s paintings, the Hopper landscape is perhaps the most beloved natural landscape in Truro, and the proposed single-family residence has upset the efforts of a large group of neighbors who have been trying to raise money to preserve the ridge from development.
“It’s one of the most important pieces of history that exists in Truro,” said Joan Holt, one of the distraught neighbors. “Why would you want to despoil that view?” she asked. “Why not build lower?”
The lot in question is owned by Donald and Andrea Kline, purchased in May for $6.75 million. The proposed house is estimated to cost $2 million to build. Due to the rare species of plants and animals documented on the land, an Environmental Notification Form (ENF) was filed in July. It states that a four-bedroom, 6,500-square-foot structure is to be built, with the maximum height 20 feet above existing grade. The new residence would be in addition to the existing two-story, 2,000-square foot residence, which is listed as having three bedrooms. The impervious area on the site, driveway and parking, would increase from .05 of an acre to about a fifth of an acre.
The project description says the lot is 9.36 acres, with elevations reaching 58-feet near the geographic center of the property — the top of the hill, where the new house is to be constructed. The document also states that approximately 2.05 acres west of the existing house and adjacent to the bay will be protected by a conservation restriction. The home, it says, will occupy a 4.74-acre lot. The placement of the proposed house was moved east from the original, preferred alternative, the report says, to reduce impacts to broom crowberry as an on-site alternative.
The broom crowberry was documented on the site by Oxbow Associates, a firm from Acton hired for the rare and endangered species habitat review. Oxbow reviewed the site on April 30, May 4 and May 22 of this year. Habitat for the eastern spadefoot toad, the eastern box turtle and the northern harrier had already been mapped on the land. According to the ENF, the project design is completed. Written comments on the project will be taken prior to Aug. 14 and a certificate on the ENF will be issued on Aug. 24. A site visit by Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) officials was held last week. Given Truro zoning and its interpretation, this may be the only regulatory relief required.
Kline, who had no comment on his proposal, is no stranger to the controversy of trying to build a very large house on the bay in Truro. In 1997 Kline purchased a home in the Shearwater subdivision in North Truro from Harold Harris, the man who created the 60-lot development in 1978. The subdivision had deed covenants that prohibited, among other things, more than one residence per lot and homes greater than 4,000 square feet. Kline’s attempts to circumvent deed covenants to build a house that the court calculated at 9,000 square feet were thwarted through legal action by the subdivision association. Civil action started in 1999. Kline lost his appeal in 2005.
Building Commissioner Tom Wingard said he has not yet been consulted about the Stephens Way project. No building permit application has been filed by Kline, but the MEPA site visit has galvanized the neighbors, many of whom donated money to put a nearby property into the Truro Conservation Trust. Holt said a petition is circulating urging one of the town regulatory boards to make a discretionary referral of the project to the Cape Cod Commission. “I’m hoping this will not go quickly,” Holt said. “I’m hoping that our concerns can be recognized in this process.”
The Hopper property is now owned by brothers Anton and Lawrence Schiffenhaus, who have kept the property very much the way Hopper left it, both inside and out. Schiffenhaus wants to meet with his brother before commenting further in public. Lawrence is in Boston, attending the Hopper exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. “I think this might be the opening salvo in a very long story,” Anton said of the looming permit application.
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Aug 16th, 2007