Garage Case Is Heard by Judge

Town Counsel Presses in Court to Have Moujabber Garage Demolished as
Ordered, Calling it Hideous

By IAN FEIN

A three-story North Bluff garage built in open violation of town
zoning laws three years ago is an illegal eyesore and must come down
now, Oak Bluffs town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport told a Dukes County
Superior Court judge this week.

"This building - this monstrous, hideous, inappropriate
building - should not have been built, and the court said so last
year," Mr. Rappaport argued on Tuesday, asking the court to affirm
a December 2004 demolition order from the town. "It's been
up there for three years now. You can't dress it up in any way
that's going to make it fit."

Boston attorney Michael Vhay countered that his client, Joseph G.
Moujabber, was acting in good faith when he built the structure three
years ago, and that he should be afforded a reasonable opportunity to
bring his building back into compliance. Mr. Vhay cited a Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling from Falmouth to argue his point.

"I would advise you to tread very carefully," he told
the judge on Tuesday. "The SJC has said that demolition should be
a last resort."

The exchange came during a two-and-a-half-hour hearing in the
Edgartown courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. The Hon. Richard T. Moses
presided over the session, which involved multiple motions filed in two
separate lawsuits over the North Bluff garage. Also present in court on
Tuesday was Boston attorney Stephanie Kiefer, who is representing
neighbors Albert Read and Belleruth Naparstek as intervening parties in
both suits.

Attorneys on all sides this week acknowledged that the dispute has
resulted in a complex procedural knot, and Judge Moses, who admitted he
knew very little about the case on Tuesday, said it might take him some
time to untangle the mess.

The conflict dates back to November 2003, when Mr. Moujabber
received a town building permit to replace an existing 200-square-foot
garage on his Sea View avenue extension property. The proposed cost of
the replacement was $22,000, but less than six months later, the project
grew into a three-story building with multiple balconies, sliding glass
doors and a roof deck. The new structure sparked heated opposition
throughout the neighborhood and earned the moniker Garage Mahal from
critics.

Under pressure from town officials and neighbors, then-building
inspector Richard Mavro, who later retired under accidental disability,
revoked the building permit for the garage in May 2004, a decision the
zoning board of appeals upheld later that summer.

Mr. Moujabber since has filed three lawsuits against the town. The
first - an appeal of the revocation order - was resolved
last February, when both sides agreed to a superior court judgment that
the zoning board and building inspector were correct in revoking the
building permit for the structure. It marked a key win for the town and
neighbors because, had the court found in favor of Mr. Moujabber in that
particular case, he would have been entitled to keep the garage as it
stands.

The second two lawsuits - which were both before Judge Moses
this week - deal with subsequent attempts by Mr. Moujabber to
salvage his building by attaching it to an existing residence he owns on
an adjacent lot.

Because town voters added the North Bluff neighborhood to the
Copeland Plan district of critical planning concern (DCPC) in spring
2004, Mr. Moujabber, before he could obtain a new building permit, was
required to seek a certificate of appropriateness from the district
review board. Mr. Moujabber twice submitted modification plans to the
Copeland Plan review board, and both times his application was denied.

At issue in two of the motions before Judge Moses this week was the
proper way for Mr. Moujabber to challenge the review board decisions.

The first time, he appealed the denial to the town zoning board,
which determined that it did not have the authority to overturn the
review board. Mr. Moujabber then sued the zoning board, resulting in the
second of his three lawsuits.

Mr. Rappaport on Tuesday argued that the zoning board was correct in
its determination because the review board administers special land use
regulations empowered by the state legislature through the enabling act
of the Martha's Vineyard Commission (MVC). These DCPC regulations
trump town zoning bylaws, he said, so therefore an appeal of the zoning
board decision has no place in court.

"This is settled law. There is a legion of cases on the
Martha's Vineyard Commission," Mr. Rappaport said, citing
what he described as seminal cases dating back to the early years of the
regional planning agency. "The MVC statute and case law have made
it clear that these are not zoning bylaws; they are regulations to
protect special resources with regional and statewide significance. This
court can't breathe power into a board that doesn't have
it."

Mr. Vhay suggested that, because the DCPC regulations are listed
within the town zoning bylaws, the zoning board should have the
authority to overturn a review board decision. But in an exchange with
Judge Moses on Tuesday, he conceded that there is a significant
distinction, because while zoning bylaws require approval from the
Massachusetts Attorney General, DCPC regulations specifically do not.

The third lawsuit in the conflict arose after the Copeland Plan
review board turned down Mr. Moujabber's modification plans for a
second time. Here, instead of going back to the zoning board, Mr.
Moujabber appealed the denial directly to court.

Mr. Vhay on Tuesday argued that the review board decision was
arbitrary and capricious because it did not provide supporting facts or
reasons for its conclusion. "At the very least, this case should
be remanded back the Copeland board to give my client a clear decision
that tells him how he can bring the building into compliance," he
said.

Mr. Rappaport countered that the Copeland Plan review board is
charged with protecting the unique cultural values and Victorian
architecture of the North Bluff neighborhood, and that the rectangular
three-story garage was simply out of scale with everything else in the
area.

Also before the court as part of the second lawsuit on Tuesday was
an appeal of the December 2004 town demolition order. Mr. Rappaport
acknowledged that Judge Moses has broad discretion over whether to
affirm to the demolition order at this juncture, but he argued that
- because Mr. Moujabber has not made a reasonable effort to
resolve the situation - the court should take action soon.

"Something else should have been done during these last two
years," Mr. Rappaport said. "At some point along the line
these plaintiffs should have said, ‘This doesn't fit, and
we'll come in with a more modest proposal.'"

Mr. Vhay reiterated that Mr. Moujabber should be given every
opportunity to bring his building into compliance.

"My client has conceded, and everyone agrees, the building
cannot stay as it is," Mr. Vhay said on Tuesday. "But what
we're left with is what everyone was left with in May 2004 -
what to do with that three-story structure."