Carol Sullivan Jackson

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It takes a village.

—or at least a neighborhood.

All of us who live on Harbor Avenue are “from away,” but we feel fortunate to have chosen Southwest Harbor as our second home. We came from California, Florida, New York, Michigan, and Virginia, settling on this block-long street, one of only a few that lead to the harbor. Even with our varied backgrounds, we share an appreciation of the qualities of our neighborhood that make it feel like home. It’s not just the glancing views of the harbor most of us have, or the ability to walk to the post office, library, or town dock or to stop for a quick visit with one of our neighbors on this intimate street. It’s more that we share a collective awareness that we live in a special place, and that we have a respect for what we share with our neighbors.

So, when the specialness of our century-old neighborhood was insulted by a real estate developer who didn’t see what we have here, but instead saw an opportunity to make a profit on a small lot by shoehorning a second house on it as big as the house already on the lot, and building it less than 1-1/2 inches from the neighboring property, we came together to take action. The construction underway at 72 Clark Point Road violates many provisions of the Southwest Harbor Zoning Ordinances. And now the Southwest Harbor Board of Appeals has found that the building permit enabling this construction is an invalid permit issued by the Code Enforcement Officer despite its not meeting the town’s codes.

It has taken the collective energy of all of us, over the whole summer, to achieve this result—which could have been avoided by the proper application of the ordinances.

This now will bring the matter before the planning board for its review, where it should have gone in the first place, and will give us a chance to be heard in a public hearing. We hope that the planning board will have our backs, and the whole town’s, in protecting our neighborhood by fairly applying the provisions of our ordinances so that we can count on the future of our neighborhoods and the town to continue to be a special place.

Carol Sullivan Jackson