ConsCom to Review Gerry Island, Spray Avenue Projects

Although tonight's meeting isn't expected to draw the scores of residents that flocked to similar gatherings last month, the town's Conservation Commission is set to review two hot-button issues in the auditorium of tonight.

The first will be a review of a proposed by Peter Noyes on Gerry Island. Noyes is currently appealing a ruling handed down by the commission last month that fined him $900 for out to the island. He now faces similar fines for each day that a herd of four goats remains out on the island. One of the goats was in what was believed to be an animal attack.

The other issue on tap tonight is a development project on , which drew neighbors to a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting in May.

At that meeting, local attorney Paul Lynch and David Groom, who heads the Groom Construction Co., appeared before the board with detailed plans for an assortment of renovations to the house, which they both called "delapidated."

Lynch said that Groom, whose company owns and is renovating the 40-year-old stucco house on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, is looking to construct "several little additions to the home."

Planned additions to the home include an expanded storage area behind a garage, a 105-square-foot addition to the house's family room and a 45-square-foot addition to the front entrance.

Groom, who has plans to sell the house once it has been renovated, has already started work on the house and yard and his company has the Conservation Commission's permission to work, but must win their approval before

After the board heard from Lynch and Groom, local attorney Carl King, who represented a crowd of neighbors, asked members to delay the pair's request until the project can be reviewed by the town in "the proper order," which he said they hadn't done.

King accused Lynch and Groom of "constantly changing plans" and said that documents submitted over the last few months to various town departments "showed additions that were not on the initial plans."

"This application is flawed because firstly, there is no order of conditions from the Conservation Commission and second because there is no Planning Board approval, which is required," King said.

King also told board members that he had gone through records attached to the property and found that it was divided into two parcels; the registered land that the house currently sits on and a secondary, smaller beach parcel.