Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect new information.

By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — While work has resumed on a waterfront house at 233 Hillspoint Road — stalled for years in a tangle of zoning disputes and litigation — it missed a deadline to comply with a recent decision by the Blight Prevention Board.

The board on March 9 gave the owner two weeks to comply with its order to address zoning violations at the blue-wrapped structure on Old Mill Beach, including removing the chimney and a cupola — or face potential fines.

That work was not completed by the March 23 deadline.

As agreed under a court settlement, a chimney was to be removed. It was tossed chunk by chunk into a 15-yard dumpster. A cupola also was to be lopped from the top.

The property in previous decades home to restaurants. It was being converted to a beachfront home, but the structure exceeded what was allowed in its zoning approval. Stop-work orders and litigation ensued for several years.

The town’s Blight Prevention Board, in discussing the the property earlier this month — not for the first time — made it clear patience had worn thin.

“Once the zoning violations are removed, then the zoning department would agree to issue a zoning permit to commence construction,” town Building Official Steve said at the meeting.

Mary Gai, a real estate broker representing the latest property owner, an LLC, said it is a premier property.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the renderings but they’re spectacular,” she said at the blight meeting. “This is going to be a gorgeous house.”

The blight board is to meet again at 7 p.m. April 13, online. An agenda or link has not yet been posted.

Thane Grauel, the Westport Journal executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Learn more about us here.