The new owner of a Front Street house that was historically used as a two-family wants the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals to grant a Special Permit for an official conversion of the single-family to two-family, but opposition from a neighbor and a cautious ZBA could keep it a single-family house.

Richard Schaffer, the attorney for 444 Front Street owner Chris Shachoy, said history of two-family use goes back a long way, but two years has lapsed since the last time it was used as a two-family dwelling.

Plans for the house include the enlargement of a rear deck plus an additional deck, but the footprint would remain the same and the window arrangement of the house would be the only visible change from the front.

“The neighborhood would not be changed,” said Schaffer, “[we’re] just taking an older house and updating it and making it look more attractive.” The house, said Shaffer, was originally built by the younger brother of Elizabeth Taber. “This particular addition … would not be a detriment to the neighborhood or the character of the town.”

ZBA Chairman Eric Pierce asked if the home would be owner-occupied, and Schaffer said yes, at least in the beginning.

Pierce wanted to do some research on the request before making a decision, saying the board had never dealt with a case such as this. He wanted to be sure the board wouldn’t be “putting our foot in a bucket.”

Resident Helen Hills said that her family sold the house to Shachoy, that the house was built in 1838, and that the entire second floor was made into a separate unit in 1960 when her cousin’s older brother got married. She claimed it became a rental property in 1990 and was rented a long time, and various other families lived there until her cousin died four years ago.

“It’s a beautiful house, and I’m glad to see it fixed up,” Hills said.

There was concern from neighboring resident and realtor Bernadette Kelly over the existence of several other two-family houses on that part of Front Street. She wondered what the Town’s plan was for that stretch of road at “the entryway to our town.”

“It is a lovely house [and] it would be great to see it preserved,” said Kelley, “I’m not particularly comfortable that it’s going to be preserved as an investment property.” It is being lovingly maintained for now, she said, but that is not always the case with rental properties, she commented.

Schaffer brought up the nearby Marion Village Estates, saying this house was only adding one unit, and rental properties in Marion are in demand. The one unit would not burden the town services, said Schaffer, and a house can be run-down whether or not it’s a rental.

“A lot of houses in town that are not rented are run down,” argued Schaffer.

Kelly disagreed with Schaffer’s reasoning.

“How does this actually fit into the existing character of the neighborhood, because the Baywatch neighborhood does not fit into the character of the neighborhood,” said Kelly.

Schaffer replied, “The single-family dwelling could be rented out as it is already. So there’s no difference.”

Hills’ comment was that Shachoy was within his right to tear the old house down, but he chose to renovate it. She argued that the recognition as a two-family would not make any difference.

“We will have to dig a little deeper into the bylaws,” said Pierce, and the hearing was closed for the application to be taken under advisement. When Schaffer asked Pierce to keep the public hearing open in case issues arise that he would like to address, Pierce refused, not even sure if he could re-open the public hearing or not.

The hearing was already closed, the matter would be taken under advisement, the board would render a decision, “…And then you can sue us,” said Pierce.

“Appeal,” Building Commissioner Scott Shippey corrected Pierce.

“Appeal,” said Pierce. “Sorry.”

The next meeting of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals is scheduled for December 10 at 7:30 pm at the Marion Town House.

By Jean Perry

A working meeting between the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen and the Marine Advisory Board focused on three areas of the waterfront enterprise fund: coastal zone management, fees, and wharf improvements.

MAB Chairman John Cornish presented the selectmen with a draft that was not offered for public discussion at the time. The MAB members had taken an earlier document – one that was deemed inadequate to protect the public’s use of waterways along Mattapoisett’s coast – and attempted to beef up elements they felt were important. Recreational uses from shellfishing to paddle boarding, public beaches to kayaking were included as the types of recreation that should be protected and spelled out in the updated document as the board recognized the needs of more than just the boating public.

Also new in the document were suggestions on what the lengths of private docks and piers should be. Town Administrator Michael Gagne reminded the board that South Coastal Regional Coordinator David Janik of the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office, a branch of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, had suggested they be “very specific” on this point.

Another essential topic the selectmen wished to work out with the MAB was fees. The MAB in turn had asked Harbormaster Jill Simmons to assist in collecting comparative data from surrounding towns.

Simmons found that Wareham, Marion, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven, Fall River, and Plymouth all had mooring fees greater than Mattapoisett.

“We are right at the bottom,” Simmons said. Her written report included mooring fees that ranged from a high of $150 per year plus $100 per foot for a slip, to Mattapoisett’s low of $25 annually plus $1 per foot for vessels 35 feet or less or $2 per foot for vessels greater than 35 feet. Simmons felt that Mattapoisett’s per-foot structure was unfair, noting that one boat would be paying more than a neighboring boat simply because it was one foot longer.

The MAB has struggled, Cornish said, with not knowing how to approach increasing user fees to get more in line with neighboring communities and bring the waterfront enterprise into greater financial stability.

Simmons said she had been frustrated at not being able to understand Mattapoisett’s municipal bookkeeping.

“I owe Suzanne Szyndlar a public apology. She’s been great,” Simmons said. But the difficulty in figuring out how the earnings flowed against expenses had been on ongoing effort on her part, one that she was finally “getting a grip on.” She expressed appreciation for the assistance she had received from Town Hall staff.

Gagne offered insights into fiscal management, including the necessity of the waterfront enterprise establishing funds for contingencies.

“There’s no money in the budget for unexpected expenses,” said Gagne. “In 2015, retained earnings were $810; that’s no buffering whatsoever.”

Gagne thought that perhaps looking at a mooring fee of $65 gradually increased over several years might work saying, “When you let a fee stay stagnant for five or ten years then have an increase, it looks huge.”

Cornish acknowledged that there was a willingness on the part of the MAB to increase fees, but also cautiousness as well. Selectmen Jordan Collyer said, “We should be in parity with other harbors.”

A third topic of conversation was a recently drafted priority list: a list of must haves, to-dos, and a couple of wishes for the harbor side that the MAB had requested from Simmons. That list had been whittled down, prioritized, and offered to the selectmen for this meeting.

Collyer expressed his frustration at a list saying, “We get kicked in the teeth in public because we don’t listen to the MAB. You know what people want to see … the reason you are an advisory board is to tell us. Don’t just say, ‘Jill needs to tell us!’” He said that the members of the advisory board were in the public sphere and were hearing from the boating community more than the selectmen were and, therefore, should offer those views.

In defense of the list, Cornish said everything on it “needed to be done.”

The Mattapoisett Marine Advisory Board will meet again on November 19 at 7:00 pm in the Mattapoisett Town Hall conference room.

By Marilou Newell

A call came into the Mattapoisett Police Department at 9:39 am on November 15 for a man overboard who was pulled from the cold waters of Mattapoisett Harbor after he fell out of his kayak. The kayak was modified to accept a motor and was fitted with homemade outriggers made out of crutches.

Mattapoisett Harbormaster Jill Simmons said Aiming Xu of Sharon, Massachusetts was fishing when he fell into the water. The waders he was wearing quickly filled with seawater; however, Xu was wearing a personal flotation vest that kept him afloat.

Passing fisherman Chris Parker spotted Xu in distress and rescued the man. Simmons said Xu’s body temperature was about 95 degrees when he was pulled from the water and he was mildly hypothermic.

According to Mattapoisett Police Chief Mary Lyons, EMS met Parker and Xu at the wharf where EMS workers checked Xu’s vital signs and treated him in the ambulance before he was released. Xu refused transport to the hospital.

“While he was cold, he was not injured,” said Lyons in a follow-up email.

Simmons issued a warning to all boaters in the area, and she hopes this small incident will prevent worse accidents from occurring as the weeks grow colder and winter approaches.

“If you’re not prepared to be in the water, then you shouldn’t be on the water,” said Simmons. “A sudden immersion in cold water is a life-threatening event. Cold water drains heat away from the body 25 times faster than air.”

Simmons reminded boaters to dress appropriately in dry suits and full flotation gear when heading out on the water for any reason during this time of year.

“Especially in smaller boats,” Simmons added. “When it happens, it happens in a heartbeat.”

By Jean Perry