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@@@ The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday heard an appeal by the city of Portland seeking to overturn a lower court judge s ruling that blocked construction of office space in a historic West End church s parish house. The case arose in 2012 after the Portland City Council approved rezoning the 140-year-old Williston-West Church and attached parish house over strong opposition of the Western Promenade Neighborhood Association, prompting a group of a dozen neighbors to sue the city and an Australian businessman who now owns the church. The panel of judges on the state s highest court heard arguments at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor from the city s attorney, an attorney for 11 of the neighbors who sued, and from another neighbor who is a lawyer and represents himself. The high court did not set a date for when it expects to issue a ruling. The Williston-West Church board of trustees sold the property at 32 Thomas St. in December 2011 after its congregation had shrunk for years. Businessman Frank Monsour bought the 19,000-square-foot church and attached 11,000-square-foot parish house, doing business as 32 Thomas Street LLC. Monsour reached <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/clreplicashoes.php>Christian Louboutin Outlet</a> a rezoning agreement with the city months after buying the property to restore the church portion of the property to be used as a community hall and convert the parish house into a 14-person office building on the ground floor and two or three residential units elsewhere in the building. Monsour, who is the majority owner of the software development company Majella Global Technologies, had planned to convert a portion of the <a href=http://www.alportico.net/gosoc.php> true religion uk</a> parish house into office space as the base for Majella s operations, according to court records. The church, built in 1877, was designed in the High Victorian Gothic style by Francis Fassett. The parish house, designed by Portland s best-known architect, John Calvin Stevens, was added in 1904. The church is on the National Register of Historic Places. Superior Court Justice Joyce Wheeler ruled in January in favor of the residents who sued, saying the city had erred when it rezoned the church property. She said the rezoning was inconsistent with the city s comprehensive plan, which guides development throughout the city. The city s attorney, Danielle West-Chuhta, argued in the appeal that Wheeler had disregarded a well-established legal rule that deference in zoning matters should be given to legislative bodies, like the City Council.
The Planning Staff, Planning Board and City Council all found the plan appropriately addressed preservation of historic landmarks, supporting economic development and improving neighborhood livability, West-Chuhta said in a written version of her arguments submitted to the court.
A lawyer representing the group of neighbors, Bruce McGlauflin, countered that the City Council s zoning authority is limited under state law and that the rezoning it approved ignored the city s approved comprehensive plan.
The City Council should not be allowed to substitute its ad hoc zoning determination for the community s vision expressed in the plan, McGlauflin said in his written arguments submitted to the court.
McGlauflin represents neighbors Charles and Kathy Remmel, Judy Delogu, John and Betty Gundersdorf, Samuel and Judith D Amico, Jerry W. West and Diane Worthington, Judith Mansing and Sid Tripp. Orlando Delogu, an attorney who lives at 22 Carroll St., which abuts the church, said in his own written arguments <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/michaelkorssonline.php>Michael Kors uk</a> submitted to the court that allowing a business into the parish house doesn t fit with the residential neighborhood.
The reality on the ground is that the rezoned Parish House sits in the middle of a solidly residential neighborhood 鈥?hundreds of residential structures, thousands of individual housing units, Delogu wrote.
Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:
