By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The new owners of the blue-wrapped house at Old Mill Beach are asking the Zoning Board of Appeals to sign off on some architectural changes.

The house at 233 Hillspoint Road was sold in January for $4.5 million by one LLC to another, Summit Westport LLC. The new owners settled $36,650 in blight violation fines that had accumulated.

After that, workers reappeared on the site, starting to correct work that had run astray from what was approved for previous owners and re-wrapping the house. Since its conversion from a restaurant to a new house, the property had a history including various violations, a stop-work order was issued. Court action followed.

James Pendry, a representative of the new owners, said in an email to the Planning and Zoning Department that on Feb. 11 he met with neighbors who previously brought a suit that resulted in a stipulated agreement, and the proposed changes were discussed.

He indicated the neighbors were on board, with the subject line to the P&Z Department including “neighbor approved changes vs. stipulated settlement plan at 233 Hillspoint.”

Deputy Planning and Zoning Director Michelle Perillie summed up the request in a recent memo:

• Six windows above the garage, rather than two.
• The front entry stairway enclosed with a three-story addition, including third garage bay.
• A pedestrian door to access the outside from the garage without opening the overhead garage door.
• A glass panel in place of the stone veneer at rear south corner and extending across the entire rear elevation where the lower level is open to the outside … as well as a thin, vertical window added to alcove on first floor.
• A spiral staircase added back to plan from rooftop to first floor and a straight stair added to access ground level from first floor.
• Modification of roofline in middle of house with two windows added.
• Vegetative buffer reduced from 5 feet along west property line and 15 feet along south property line to 5 feet along both property lines.

The request is something of a rarity in the zoning realm — a variance is not sought but rather modifications to a stipulated agreement that came out of a court case involving the owners, the town and some neighbors.

Pendry told the Westport Journal on Saturday that he and the neighbors who brought the suit had indeed come to an agreement on the proposed changes.

“They conceded a lot of things and I conceded a lot of things, so we’re in agreement on what we’d like to happen between the neighbors and I,” Pendry said.

He said the neighbors wanted the new house to be like a Nantucket, shake-style colonial traditional.

“In my mind it’s contemporary, and it wants to be contemporary,” he said.

“So I made it a traditional, I call it the Williamsburg version, but a traditional shake with shutters and a stone veneer base,” Pendry said. “The inside remains very contemporary but the outside is not.”

Don Bergmann, who lives a couple blocks away, wrote to the department with questions about the process. Among them:

“Why do not the modifications to the variances, e.g. increased coverage and reduced setbacks, not have to be approved by the ZBA as variances in accordance with CT variance law?” he asked.

Perillie said the request will need the approval of neighbors and the ZBA.

The matter will be heard by the ZBA at a special meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, March 4.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 36 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.