08/22/2012 ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS Minutes

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MASHPEE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS MINUTES • AUGUST 22, 2012 Ms. Vicki J. Holmes -McDevitt represented her Petition and read the following statement: In 1974, 1 was asked to come and see a development known as Santuit Pond Estates, owned at the time by Nancy and Donald Blakeman. I picked out a parcel of land, Lot #47, 30 Cranberry Land and purchased it in 1974. 1 paid taxes on that lot beginning in 1974 -22 years as a buildable.lot- before eventually building my home on it in 1996. In December 1998, lot #46 — 24 Cranberry Lane - was purchased. I have paid taxes on that parcel of land for 13 years as a separate and buildable lot, which taxes have included: • Land tax. • Street betterment. • Water district. • Community Preservation Act (of which committee I was a member to save Brackett Bog and the other 270 abutting acres). My original intent was to build a home for my parents in their later years to be closer to me for any care giving needs they may have. Now I need to sell that parcel of land so that 1 can pay off my mortgage balance and keep my own home at 30 Cranberry Lane, as my alimony ends August 2, 2013. Now the sale of that • parcel of land is for my survival and to hold onto my home that I have labored many years in my jobs and saved money in order to bay and build my dream home in Mashpee. Hence, 1 receive quarterly tax bills for two properties: 24 Cranberry Lane — the buildable lot I purchased — and 30 Cranberry Lane, as they are separately deeded. William Hauck, the Mashpee Building Inspector at the time of purchase of 24 Cranberry Lane, gave me documentation that 24 Cranberry Lane was a buildable lot in 1998. When I went through a divorce in 2000, Judge Robert Terry of Barnstable Probate and Family Court deeded over to me my home at 30 Cranberry Lane and the parcel of land at 24 Cranberry Lane as my divorce settlement. Now the only way I can keep my home at 30 Cranberry Lane is to sell that buildable lot at 24 Cranberry Lane. Given the economy, I have reduced the price of that buildable lot many times over to the point of now being below tax value. Variables that played into the land price reduction were: • Overall economic downfall of the real estate/land market value. • Santuit Pond pollution. • Town restrictions and guidelines added after the purchase date of • the property that made selling it as a buildable lot almost prohibitive. 2