Property owner seeks guidance on rebuilding a home on commercially zoned lot; board will circulate GML/239

Paul Bar told the Mount Hope Planning Board on May 7 that he intends to tear down an old, deteriorated farmhouse at 1524 Route 211 West and build a similarly sized single‑family house on the parcel, which is currently zoned for business uses. Bar said the existing stone farmhouse is uninhabitable and that he has controlled the property for about 30 years; he said he transferred a small strip of adjacent land to the parcel to make the lot workable.

Board members explained that because the property is within a business district the proposed residential rebuild may require a use variance or an allowance to extend a pre‑existing nonconforming use. The board discussed the legal standard for hardship and whether any hardship was self‑created; a member said case law and the municipal code should be reviewed to determine whether a nonconforming use extension is permitted in these circumstances. “I’ll have to check your code to see if there's any ability to extend a non‑conforming use because that's in effect what they're asking for aside from a use variance,” a board member said.

The board moved to circulate the application to the county under GML/239 for a 30‑day review and agreed to return the item for additional research from staff (including code and case‑law checks) before scheduling a public hearing. The county circulation must run its statutory period before the board takes final action.

Next steps: Staff will send the GML/239 referral, research whether the code allows extension of a pre‑existing nonconforming residential use or whether a use variance is required, and bring findings back to the board for a follow‑up meeting and possible public hearing.