News

By Dan Moffett

    Christopher O’Hare tried another argument to get a metal roof approved for his Place au Soleil home, but Gulf Stream town commissioners rejected it like all the others.
    This time, however, the rejection wasn’t unanimous, but 4-1. Commissioner Donna White voted against turning down O’Hare’s appeal, saying she was unsure whether the town’s ordinance was at odds with state law.
    “On the basis of what was there, I thought the state statute that his (O’Hare’s) lawyer quoted did leave another choice,” White explained. “I would have liked to have had more legal counsel.”
    O’Hare’s lawyer, Lou Roeder, argued to commissioners that the town’s ordinance banning metal roofs was preempted by the state law that requires municipalities to allow solar and energy-saving construction. At a cost of perhaps $40,000, O’Hare wants to install a “solar sandwich” roof that has photovoltaic cells on the outside and pipes that recirculate heated water on the inside.
    “I think you’ve got an environmental responsibility to do the right thing,” O’Hare said. “It’s not done for return on investment. It’s done to be a good citizen.”
    The four commissioners who rejected the roof plan sided with the argument that the town’s ordinance does not prohibit solar and other energy-efficient construction, but it does prohibit putting them on metal roofs. Many Gulf Stream homeowners have solar devices on their roofs, four commissioners agreed, but those homeowners have installed them on concrete, tile or shingled roofs, not metal ones.
    Commissioner Thomas Stanley asked if O’Hare or Roeder could provide a picture of one of the solar sandwich roofs.
    “Do you have any examples of this type of system being approved in any other coastal town or anywhere in this region?” Stanley asked.
    Roeder said he couldn’t, but argued that much of the technology in the system had been around for years and widely used elsewhere. He said the state statute requires that the plans for the roof be approved and sent to the next level, which is Delray Beach building inspectors who would review the engineering and design for the town.
    O’Hare, who has lived in the town for 13 years and in the Place au Soleil home three years, has been trying to get the roof approved since 2012, but has repeatedly been rejected by town officials. The dispute led him to start a website that skewers town management and also to file numerous suits against the town.
    Three appeals in the Palm Beach County Circuit Court over the metal roof case were denied. He said he intends to file another suit against the town, appealing the commission’s latest rejection.
    In other business:
    • Commissioners received a report from the ad hoc committee reviewing town codes as part of a settlement agreement over suits filed by resident Martin O’Boyle.
    Committee Chairman William Boardman said the panel recommended creating a waiver system that would allow construction changes without “the strict requirements for a variance.”
    Boardman said another recommendation is for town officials to recognize Place au Soleil as a distinct neighborhood with distinct needs.
    “The committee, throughout the process, became ever increasingly aware that Place au Soleil is a bit of a community unto itself,” the panel’s report said. “It is the committee’s consensus that efforts should be increased to understand and respect that PAS is different than other parts of Gulf Stream on the barrier island.”
    Boardman said the town needs to work harder at “making our residents feel more like customers.”
    • The town’s recent efforts to make its public records more accessible went a bit haywire when the Social Security numbers of employees and the home addresses of police officers were inadvertently posted online or released in document requests. Town Manager William Thrasher said the problems with disclosures have been corrected.