For Release Immediately July 15, 2010

Court Order to Shatter a Life Marblehead, MA — July 15, 2010 — “Court Order to Shatter a Life” is the title of the second video on the order to tear down my home on the edge of Seaside Park in the Historic Town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Click here to read Wayne Johnson’s written statement. Applying common sense and applying the same standards used for many other Special Permit applications will allow The Town of Marblehead to legally prevent his home from being torn down, if the Marblehead ZBA wishes to do so. The Land Courts decision in 2000 allows this. The short video is posted on the YouTube Channel “The Head Marble,” the blog “The Marble Head” and you can download it from this link. The movie explains Wayne H. Johnson’s request for a special exemption from the Historic Town of Marblehead, Massachusetts to preserve his home of 14-years and you can learn how he is coping with the court order to tear down his home.

What can the Town of Marblehead do to prevent his home from being torn

down and why?

Space does not allow including the following commentary on the You Tube linked video “Court Order to Shatter a Life,” but I thought it would be helpful to you in capturing the essence of the Land Courts decision to remove my house and what the Court said I could do to prevent that from happening in light of the Town of Marblehead’s prior approvals and my following all the rules and using competent professionals for direction. It is a complex matter but one that is best understood using common sense. I have been asked the question, “What can the Town of Marblehead to do to prevent your home from being removed from the lot it was built on, in light of the Land Court’s decision to remove it after the Town of Marblehead had granted all the necessary approvals at various levels four times”? It is not only confusing but also devastating to be left in this position by the Town of Marblehead’s actions and subsequent Land Court reversal of two of the town’s decisions. Especially when I had followed all the rules. The Land Court has given, or at least allowed, the town the opportunity to fulfill the purpose of its original approvals by allowing the town to correct a technical error in the Town’s original decisions by approving my subsequent request for a Special Permit for Dimensional Relief. It just doesn’t make common sense that the Town hasn’t done that in light of the Judge’s decision allowing the Zoning Board of Appeals to grant such a Special Permit.

The May 10, 2000 decision of the Land Court states,

“Both decisions of the [Marblehead ZBA] board are annulled. I am fully aware of the hardship involved in the removal of the house on lot 5, and I believe Mr. Johnson when he says he waited out the appeal period from the filing of the second decision before going for his mortgage financing”

The May 10, 2000 decision further ordered,

“The board shall instruct the building commissioner to revoke the building permit issued for the structure on lot 5 and order that the structure be removed. However, no order for the removal of the house is to issue before Mr. Johnson has a reasonable opportunity to seek relief which would bring lot 5 into compliance, in which event either party may move for appropriate modification of the judgment in this case. I retain jurisdiction in order to resolve any questions which may arise in connection with the implementation of the judgment in this case. “Obviously the relief the Judge is referring to is the granting of a Special Permit for Dimensional Relief by theTown of Marbleheads, Zoning Appeals Board.

Subsequent to this order, I have made two attempts to bring the lot into compliance through the special permit application to the Town of Marblehead’s, Zoning Board of Appeal. I made application, once in 2000 and once in 2009 when I offered to remove a part of my home as a compromise. It is my understanding, after viewing the ZBA hearing records for the past 10 years, that they issue several permits for dimensional relief each year relative to zoning issues concerning other properties in Marblehead. In my case, each of my applications for a special permit was denied… I would like the Town of Marblehead to act responsibly, in light of the reversal of its decisions, and grant the approvals necessary for me to save my home. The Land Court Judge specifically stated the mechanism by which the Town of Marblehead and I could save my home and that mechanism allows the granting of a Special Permit. You may ask, “Why do I need a special permit?” The Judges decision was made four years after the Town of Marblehead had granted me an occupancy permit. It was my home when the Judge made his ruling and it has been my home for the past 14 years. As with any thinking responsible, law-abiding citizen, I would not have proceeded to construct my house if the Town had told me that the lot was not a legal building lot. I was told no less than four times by Marblehead officials that I had a legal building lot. One approval was immediately after it was surveyed and before the plans were recorded in the Registry of Deeds. The second approval was just prior to signing of the Purchase and Sale Agreement on the sale of my original house lot. I wanted assurance that I was grandfathered and the lot’s legal building status hadn’t been affected by a recent change in the Zoning Code By-laws. I did not want to be left with an illegal unbuildable lot. The third and fourth “approvals” were given, by the actions of the Zoning Board of Appeals, when my neighbor challenged my right to build a house on the subdivided lot – the neighbors challenges were denied twice by the ZBA. A special permit gives me the right to return to the Land Court and “move for appropriate modification of

the judgment in this case”. The permit will enable me to continue to be your neighbor and live in my home in the Town of Marblehead. Follow Wayne on Twitter - @themarblehead or www.twitter.com/themarblehead.

Wayne’s Facebook profile has photographs of Marblehead and his beautiful home and family.

Wayne’s YouTube channel “The Head Marble” offers the video for viewing.

You can also read about Wayne as “The Marble Head” blog.

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