Zoning board declines to hear Roskin Road permit appeal, citing untimely filing

The Board of Zoning Appeals voted July 15 to decline hearing an appeal of a building permit for 220 Roskin Road, concluding the appeal appeared untimely.

Dwayne Hartman, an attorney representing the neighbors who filed the appeal, told the board that his clients did not learn of the permit until after a fence was installed. “We didn't know anything about it until the day they came out and put a fence up across our driveway,” Hartman said, describing plat maps and a disputed Clark Street right-of-way.

A staff member advising the board raised a threshold jurisdiction issue, saying the town’s appeal period runs for 30 days from issuance and that the permit was issued no later than May 26 while the appeal was filed on May 29. “It is my opinion that this is not properly before you, that the appeal was not properly or timely filed, and that you do not have jurisdiction to entertain this,” the staff member said.

Board members discussed the practical consequence that a separate circuit-court lawsuit about access is already pending, and that either side could still appeal a board decision to the courts. After a brief discussion, a board member moved that the board not go forward with the appeal because of lack of jurisdiction; the motion was seconded and carried on roll call. Mister Erickson, Mister Wagner, Mister Mallinger and Mister Kremke answered yes.

The board’s action was limited to a procedural determination about timeliness and did not decide the merits of property ownership or access. Hartman told the board his clients intend to pursue the matter in circuit court; the board noted that an unresolved court case is a separate track from the administrative appeal.