No joy marked the advisory approval of what could become the town’s newest subdivision — six homes on the 6-acre-plus Spence estate.
“I would recommend with great sadness that we approve the demolition permit,’’ Architectural Review and Planning Board member Charles Frankel III said before the panel voted 3-0 to send the plat plan on to the Town Commission for final consideration.
“I hate to see the property go, to be honest with you. I wish that somebody would come and restore the house,’’ Board Chairman Bob Ganger said of the sprawling two-story British Colonial residence designed by Palm Beach society architect John Volk around 1937.
The request by Delray Beach-based Seaside Builders LLC to subdivide the parcel illustrated how tightly woven residents are with town affairs. ARPB member Thomas Smith recused himself from the issue because his accounting firm represents the Spence estate. Vice Chairman Scott Morgan, who lives just south of the planned project, also left the dais so he could argue as a private citizen against it.
At the commission level, Mayor William Koch Jr. will not vote on the subdivision because his real estate firm listed the property, asking $6 million. Commissioner Chris Wheeler, whose Hidden Harbor house abuts the land on the west, said he will decide whether to recuse himself when he sees the proposal.
Other Hidden Harbor neighbors signed an agreement with Seaside Builders less than an hour before the review board convened Sept. 22. The developer promised to put a new access road into the project from State Road A1A so no extra vehicular traffic would use Hidden Harbor’s road.
Seaside also agreed to cover all liabilities created by the subdivision’s drainage and septic systems and to not alter the tree canopy over Hidden Harbor’s road. The developer plans to demolish the Spence house and smooth the mound it sits on into a dip between the house and A1A.
“I hate to see the natural beauty of this site changed, including the contour of the land,’’ Ganger said. “But some people would say that’s progress.’’
Seaside also agreed to not use “Hidden Harbor’’ as part of its name, although the plat if approved can continue to be labeled “Hidden Harbor Estates Plat Two.’’ The project will be marketed as “Harbor View Estates.’’
The original plan would have had two homes with driveways on A1A, two with driveways on the south edge of the property and two with driveways on the west side.
Seaside representatives assured both William Himmelrich, the estate’s neighbor to the north, and Morgan that the developer would provide similar drainage indemnities to them.
Morgan argued that the new project at 1220 N. Ocean Blvd. was not compatible with other homes in the town’s “Ocean West’’ district to the north and south.
“This is a shoehorned development of six lots in an area of large, estate-like feel, long-road driveways, with large-parcel properties. This does not fit,’’ Morgan said.
But Frankel said looking east to west, the proposed lots were comparable to parcels in Hidden Harbor.
“It will virtually become a new district,’’ Ganger said.
The architectural board first heard Seaside’s proposal in July but deferred its review to give the developer and neighbors time to negotiate.
Seaside promised then to document the house’s architecture before it was demolished. Ganger asked that its archeological record also be preserved.
The 9,446-square-foot house has had only two owners in its 74 years.
Seward Webb Jr., a grandson of William H. Vanderbilt, and his wife, Gertrude, the daughter of a New York City mayor, bought the land from financier E.F. Hutton. Edmond and Regina Spence bought the estate after Webb’s death. Regina Spence died last December.
Comments