The Zoning Board Appeals wrestled with but ultimately approved last week an addition to a waterfront house on South Watuppa Pond in the north end of town.

The 63 Beaulieu Street cottage, which predates town zoning, already sits closer to both its side yards than the 10 feet now allowed in that zone. The bedroom addition would cut the distance to the neighbor’s yard still further — to about 5.5 feet, the board was told.

Homeowner Dennis M. Amaral and his attorney told the board that the addition is needed to hold a new master bedroom and also to allow for a new bathroom that Mr. and Mrs. Amaral need now that they want to make the house their full time residence. The house would remain two bedrooms, they said, since a much smaller existing bedroom would be converted to a family room.

Such a squeeze is not unusual for the neighborhood which consists mostly of houses on small lots, the lawyer said.

Neighbors both to the south (where the addition would be built) and north sides voiced strong support for the addition plan.

Still, board members had concerns.

With the side yards so restricted, how could a truck get to the front (water) side of the lot to service the septic system or for any other work, Donna Lambert asked. “I’m not comfortable voting for something like this, being a variance, given the location. It’s in a sensitive area.”

The Amarals’ attorney suggested that they could try to work out an easement with the neighbor to the north allowing unobstructed access in the space between the two houses for use by vehicles if needed by either party.

Roger Menard asked about the the zoning “hardship” that rules require for such a variance.

The proposed bedroom would be 18’6” by 24’10 he said — “That’s a good sized bedroom.” Could they work with something smaller?

The hardship is the fact that the house sits crosswise (north-south) in a narrow east-west lot, the attorney replied, so side yards are quite tight. They added that they need the space the new room would provide.

And Constance Gee questioned the argument that most of the other houses in the neighborhood are closer to lot lines than present day zoning allows. You say that since nothing else is conforming, this doesn’t have to be either? “When do you start applying the regulations in a neighborhood like this, or do you just not do it?”

Board Chairman Gerald Coutinho replied that “we could take a very strict view of all of the

these but we try to work within the law … and common sense… How does it affect the neighborhood?”

Citing the fact that neither neighbor objects, the board eventually approved the variance request with the stipulation that an easement allowing access between the house and its neighbor to the north be worked out with enough room to provide vehicle access to the front yards.