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Trustees approve revocable encroachment at 1025 Surf Street after staff, applicant present options
Summary
The board approved a revocable encroachment license for building elements at 1025 Surf Street that extend roughly 1.5 feet into a river-trail easement; planning staff said the building received a certificate of occupancy after an earlier administrative approval but the encroachment permit step was missed.
The Board of Trustees voted to approve a revocable encroachment license for 1025 Surf Street, permitting building facade and utility infrastructure to remain in a town trail easement after staff and the applicant described the site history and alternatives.
Planning staff said the lot is roughly 0.09 acres and that a major site-plan approval and subsequent building permit were granted in 2022. Staff explained that an encroachment review was a condition of the original approval but that the required encroachment license step was not completed before the certificate of occupancy was issued. The encroachment into the river-trail easement and an abbreviated public walkway was estimated at about 1.5 feet.
Applicant Katie Irvin, identified in the meeting as cofounder of South Main, described the neighborhood and said the project donated and rebuilt the river trail and intentionally designed an 8‑foot pedestrian passage to anticipate traditional downtown-style encroachments (awnings, eaves, stone facades). She told trustees that the trail relocation and rebuild had been funded in part by grants and private fundraising.
Staff presented three options: (1) accept the encroachments and permit them, (2) require dedication of additional land to offset the encroachment, or (3) deny the encroachment, which staff said would require substantial building changes and utility relocations. The town’s recreation department provided a letter saying the abbreviated trail still offered roughly 6.5 to 7 feet of clearance and that the trail met the department’s expectations after the applicant rebuilt it.
Trustees voted to adopt Resolution 47, a revocable encroachment license, calling the approval a cleanup of an oversight and noting the need for clearer early coordination in the future. Trustees and staff agreed to hold a follow‑up work session on encroachments in the South Main PUD to clarify expectations for future projects.
