By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Zoning Board of Appeals has delayed a decision on whether one of the oldest houses at Saugatuck Shores can be razed to make way for a new, FEMA-compliant structure twice its size.

The Colonial Revival house at 14 Cockenoe Drive was built around 1936, according to land records, or 1938, according to the applicant. Bluewater Cockenoe LLC is the owner. Cindy Tyminsky is the applicant.

At Tuesday’s ZBA hearing, Joel Green a lawyer for a neighbor, argued against granting a variance that would allow the larger structure on the shore of Long Island Sound.

The existing house encompasses 1,672 square feet. The new house would be about 3,400.

Fourteen Cockenoe Drive is a 0.19-acre parcel on the shore of Long Island Sound and adjacent to a stone jetty and the island association’s beach. It was purchased by Bluewater Cockenoe LLC in January 2022.

East of the canal, only two houses appear to be older — 25 Cockenoe, a classic Cape Cod built around 1926, and 12 Cockenoe, built around 1922, according to land records, or 1935, according to the town’s Historic Resources Inventory.

ZBA Chairman Jim Ezzes pointed out that the board in 2015 approved a variance allowing reconstruction of the house. It was not acted on, but the variance remains in effect.

The latest variance request before the board seeks to demolish the old structure, which was extensively damaged in Superstorm Sandy. It also seeks to expand the footprint, and, as approved earlier, move it to the east.

“In this case there is no hardship presented by the application,” Green said. “Is there a hardship here?” he asked. “Absolutely not.”

“The desire for additional living space or a desire to add new structures to an undersized lot cannot provide the justification for a variance,” Green said. “Disappointment in the use of property does not constitute exceptional difficulty or unusual hardship. The inability to build a larger house is a personal hardship, which cannot justify a variance.”

“My point is that there’s a variance in effect from 2015 that, by right, they can build on that foundation,” Ezzes said. “What they build there, we would have to approve … you could discuss it with our town attorney because that’s a conversation I’ve had.”

“I’d be glad to,” Green shot back.

Ezzes suggested the public hearing be concluded, but that a vote on the matter be delayed.

“I know I’m going to have a question or two for the town attorney,” Ezzes said.

Thane Grauel, executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.