HARC approval of Eaton Street family compound is upheld

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

The plan to build an 11,000 square foot home at 616 Eaton St., which has drawn complaints and a threatened lawsuit from neighbors, will be allowed to proceed following a ruling by Special Magistrate Donald Yates.

Yates on Aug. 26 heard an appeal of a decision by the Historic Architectural Review Commission (HARC) allowing the project, which includes renovating the existing four-bedroom on the property and adding a second, five-bedroom home, a pool and garage. A group of 15 neighbors had appealed the HARC decision to Judge Yates, saying the proposed construction did not meet historic architecture guidelines because of its size and appearance.

However, Yates upheld the HARC decision in a ruling released Sept. 14. In his two-page ruling, Yates gave no reason for his decision, only stating that while he denied a motion by the property’s owners, Mark and Kristina Serbinski, to throw out the neighbors’ appeal, he was upholding the HARC decision approving the project.

The Serbinskis purchased the property, which includes a particularly large 19,000 square foot lot, last year for $1.8 million. In addition to the two houses, their proposed family compound includes second floor balconies and a rooftop garden in the 11,464 square foot project.

HARC Chair Bryan Green was the lone vote against the project at the commission’s July 28 meeting, saying it resembled a hotel. But HARC’s own attorney, Assistant City Attorney Ron Ramsingh, said the HARC decision “was sound” and should be upheld by Judge Yates, despite the “angst” felt by the surrounding neighbors.

“We do feel that what is proposed, while not popular with certain people, is wholly within the [HARC] guidelines,” he said.

Yates’ ruling is unlikely to be the final decision. Ramsingh, at the Aug. 25 HARC meeting where a second reading vote on the proposed plan was postponed, said, “I do anticipate this getting appealed to the second [Circuit Court] level and possibly a third level given the level of contention.”

HARC will now put the project on its next meeting agenda for a second and final vote to approve the project.

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