And while the zoning board approved a variance to expand the house beyond its permitted floor area ratio, Wells contends the city’s Inspectional Services Department overlooked a height violation, letting the building grow to over 45 feet. The neighborhood’s residential zoning calls for houses to stand three stories or 35 feet tall.
JENNIFER LOPEZ ON THE FLOOR LAWSUIT FULL
In Wells’s view - or lack of a view his city-facing windows have been blocked by the construction - the soaring addition is out of character with the neighborhood, which is dotted with two- and three-family houses that have been expanded with the addition of dormers, rather than full stories. State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz (center) said she wished her neighbor “had expressed his reservations to us when we solicited his input and support, before we committed our life savings to this renovation.” Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/File 2013 Bonnie McGilpin, a spokeswoman for the mayor, would not discuss the case, saying only, “Due to the ongoing litigation, we cannot comment at this time.”Ĭhang-Diaz, a former teacher who became the first Latina elected to the state Senate in 2008, acknowledged in a brief interview that the addition increased her house from two floors and an attic to “three floors and an attic.”īut she said she has been assured by the architect and the city - as recently as Thursday - that the height meets current zoning requirements.
“Without a permit from a long-form application, structural work is prohibited,” he wrote in his complaint.Ĭity officials could not provide such a permit to the Globe on Thursday.
Brian Wells filed a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court on Monday contending that the couple still doesn’t have the long-form permit required for structural construction work - and that the city looked the other way, affording special treatment to an influential politician.
The height of it - and the heft of it - are drawing stares from many neighbors and a lawsuit from one of them, who’s suing not only Chang-Diaz and her husband, but also the city, for allowing the construction to occur.
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