Priore v. Sawyer
Priore v. Sawyer
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal by the plaintiff-abutter from a decision of the Superior Court affirming the board of zoning appeals (board) upholding the issuance of a building permit on registered land. The parties stipulated to facts which gave the lot the benefit of the grandfather provision in the first sentence of c. 40A, § 6, fourth par.
Although the plaintiff argued below that c. 40A, § 6, does not apply if there was no zoning law when the lot met the statutory requirements for grandfather protection and only applies where the change is within a preexisting zoning scheme, he has rightly abandoned this argument on appeal. As the trial judge ruled, the plaintiff’s contention is precluded by Sieber v. Zoning Bd. of Appeals of Wellfleet, 16 Mass. App. Ct 985, 986 (1983).
What the abutter now argues is that Sieber
In addition, we base our decision on another ground. The parties presented evidence as to the width of the lot. The by-law provided for a ten
The judge found that the difference in the parties’ calculations as to the width of the lot was less than one to two inches.
Judgment affirmed.
As inserted by St. 1975, c. 808, § 3, that statute provides in relevant part:
“Any increase in area, frontage, width, yard, or depth requirements of a zoning ordinance or by-law shall not apply to a lot for single and two-family residential use which at the time of recording or endorsement, whichever occurs sooner was not held in common ownership with any adjoining land, conformed to then existing requirements and had less than the proposed requirement but at least five thousand square feet of area and fifty feet of frontage.”
See also Ferzoco v. Board of Appeals of Falmouth, 29 Mass. App. Ct. 986, 987 (1990).
We may take judicial notice of the record of a case. O’Neill v. Mencher, 21 Mass. App. Ct. 610, 613 (1986). In Adamowicz v. Ipswich, 395 Mass. 757, 761 n.6 (1985), the court quoted the same memorandum on which we rely.
The judge’s memorandum in Sieber shows that sideyard requirements were not met in that case, but does not indicate the extent of nonconformance.
According to the plaintiff the width of the lot was 100.2 feet while the defendants appear to have claimed it was 99.96 feet.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.