Zoning, Building Code Issues Raised Against Route 6A Property

ORLEANS – A number of storage containers populate the back of the building at 260 Route 6A. But town officials say the building is not zoned for storage operations.

Building Commissioner Davis Walters also told the planning board May 28 that demolition and other work has been done on the building’s third floor without the necessary permits from the town.

“Although building code violations and zoning violations are often shoulder to shoulder in my job, they don’t often exist at the same time for the same property,” Walters told the board. “But in this case they do.”

Walters sought the board’s support in his decision to issue a stop work order to the owner, Perseverance Coast, LLC, and to deny their eventual building permit application due to the existing zoning issues on the site. The board voted 5-0 in support of Walters’ decision.

“There are options for this person to do the right thing, and there’s recourse moving forward,” Planning Board chair Alice Van Oot.

According to the application, the company is based out of Amherst and is owned by Donald Cameron, who Walters said also owns a storage building on Giddiah Hill Road that formerly housed the Academy of Performing Arts practice facility. He said there have also been issues regarding unpermitted work at that building.

The storage containers at the Route 6A building are located at the rear of the property in an area behind the parking lot. A standing sign at the entrance of the property advertises a moving and storage business, “Coastal Storage.”

George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and community development, said that the town’s zoning bylaws prohibit storage containers in all zoning districts except for the industrial and marine business districts. The building at 260 Route 6A is in an area zoned for general business.

“The 21 storage containers and the operation of a storage business in a general business district to my mind are a prohibited use in the district, and it’s as simple as that,” Walters told the planning board.

The planning board vote gives support to Walters as Cameron prepares to appeal the commissioner’s decision to the zoning board of appeals. The board is scheduled to hear the appeal on July 3.

“I’m encouraged to see the town of Orleans enforcing its building and safety codes to ensure that our community’s own bylaws are being enforced, and that the health and safety of our employees and clients are protected,” said Jay Coburn, CEO of the Community Development Partnership, which occupies space on the building’s first floor.

The CDP, one of two other tenants in the building alongside Tighe and Bond [formerly Coastal Engineering], filed an injunction against Perseverance Coast in May in Barnstable Superior Court after the nonprofit was temporarily denied access to its offices while work was being done in the building. The injunction was filed May 14, and the partnership resumed working in the building on May 20, Coburn said.

According to the injunction, Perseverance Coast purchased the property in February. In addition to attempting to limit the CDP’s access to the building, the CDP accused the owner of “performing illegal construction work that poses a threat to the health and safety of Community Development Partnership’s staff and clients.”

“The building that we’ve been in since December [2022] has been really good for the organization and the work that we do to support the affordable housing efforts and small business development on the Lower Cape,” Coburn said when reached by phone Monday. “The distractions and changes that have been going on here at the business have really made it difficult for our staff and or colleagues to operate at 100 percent.”

Walters said upon inspecting the building’s third floor, he observed partitions that had been demolished as well as wiring that had been stripped out.

According to Walters, Cameron told him that the work represented “an emergency” effort to fix a roof leak and that he did not have time to apply for the necessary permitting. He said the owner retroactively applied for a building permit on May 15 after the stop work order was issued, but that zoning violations on the site led him to deny the permit.

The application submitted to the zoning board includes a request for a special permit, which would be needed if the board decides to overrule Walters’ decision and allow the work to proceed. If the board upholds his decision, Walters said the owner would seek a variance allowing the storage business on the site.

While a stop work order was issued for the Route 6A property, Ben Zehnder, the attorney representing the CDP, told the planning board that he was informed last week by the organization that work has continued in the building.

“For the board’s information, if the building commissioner posted the stop work order, the property owner removed it and then went back and had the same contractors in there working after it was removed,” he said.

The injunction also claimed that the owner removed the partnership’s signage from the property and also took away parking spaces that had been reserved for its staff and clients under the terms of its existing lease. Zehnder added that the storage containers on the property, which he said are already being utilized, are set within a wetland buffer zone, prompting the town’s conservation commission to rule that the owner file a notice of intent for the containers.

Walters said he is exploring all options for resolving the issue within his role as building commissioner in an effort to avoid any litigation the town might otherwise have to take. But Zehnder said based on his interactions with the owner and those of his client’s, he feared the town may ultimately have to take legal action.

“I don’t think there’s going to be any response to any of these requests absent a court order,” he said.

The planning board put its support behind Walters, with members reiterating that language in the zoning bylaw is clear.

“While this is a complex issue, our part’s straightforward,” said Dick Hartmann of the planning board. “It’s really straightforward. I think you did the right thing. Zoning is zoning.”

Cameron declined to comment for this story through his attorney, James Norcross.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com