“It’s unquestionably been a very polarizing project,’’ said E. James Veara, the town attorney.
The crux of the demolition order involves legal interpretations of arcane zoning law. But to some neighbors, the bigger question is the location of the house built by Donald and Andrea Kline.
Critics call the home - bounded by sea, sand, beach plum, and broom crowberry - a blot on a stunning landscape painted often by American artist Edward Hopper, whose modest 1930s home and studio stand next door.
“It’s too big, too declarative, not in the same style as any of the other houses around, and it is plop in the middle of the Hopper Landscape, which is almost sacred ground,’’ said author Anne Bernays, who owns a beach house nearby. “It’s like a fat woman trying to get into a size 8 dress.’’
Donald Kline died two years ago, after construction began, but the real estate businessman’s family pledges to appeal the Truro building commissioner’s Jan. 20 demolition order, according to Boston lawyer Diane Tillotson, who represents the Kline trust.
“They always intended to build with a lot of respect and sensitivity to the environment and the land around them,’’ Tillotson said. “If you were boating along that shoreline, this house is barely discernible, as opposed to many of the surrounding homes.’’
The family’s appeal, Tillotson said, is likely to assert that demolition is unfair and an example of selective enforcement.
The Klines received a building permit in May 2008 that approved the house as an “alteration’’ to a much smaller house elsewhere on the property, but neighbors went to court to fight the project. Despite warnings about the court challenge, Veara said, the Klines began construction anyway.
In May 2011, the state Appeals Court rejected the new residence as an alteration, and the Truro Zoning Board ordered the permit revoked.
“An entirely new building on a different location, which is also completely different in appearance and more than four times the size of its predecessor, cannot correctly be deemed an ‘alteration’ of the original,’’ the court ruled.
Said Veara: “For those who think it’s unfair to make them take the house down, again, they know they took a risk.’’
