Builder wants to move house built on Nulman park

NARRAGANSETT — The owner of an Ocean Road home erroneously built on land owned by the Rose Nulman Park Foundation will seek town and state Coastal Resources Management Council approval to move it where it was intended to be, 1444 Ocean Road.

The Planning Board unanimously approved the new plans at Tuesday’s meeting and recommended the Zoning Board make a favorable approval as well. Superior Court Judge Brian Stern had previously ruled the home must be demolished or removed from the Nulman property.

Board members expressed interest in keeping the project on track, but acknowledged roadblocks may appear. Moving the home would bring it closer to a coastal wetland, which requires the approval of the CRMC.

“I have a sense of discomfort, but the discomfort is environmental. The CRMC is better suited to deal with that than we are,” Planning Board member Stephen Glazer said. “We’re all kicking the can up the road to CRMC to give the final blessing or not.”

The home, which is valued at nearly $1.8 million, was entirely built on 6 percent of the abutting Nulman Park, a five-acre parcel at 1460 Ocean Road.

Developer Robert Lamoureux purchased the property in 1984 and subdivided it into two parcels, conveying the property to a company he wholly owns, Four Twenty Corp., in 2009. He received a residential assent from the CRMC and three special use permits from the town to construct the home in 2010. The 2,400-square-foot home was pending sale in 2011, but the potential buyer commissioned a survey that discovered the structure was on the Nulman property and terminated the purchase and sales agreement.

Unable to reach an agreement, Lamoureux and the Nulmans took the dispute to Washington County Superior Court, where Stern ruled the home must be demolished or removed. He also ordered Lamoureux to remove all encroachments, including an onsite wastewater treatment system, and return the Nulmans’ property to its previous state.

Stern’s decision was largely driven by terms of the trust governing the Nulman property, which stipulates the land must be used “as a park which is open to the public free of charge for recreation and contemplation.” The trust, crafted by the late New York businessman and property owner Saul Nulman, protects and preserves the land as a park in perpetuity. A $1.5 million penalty payable to the New York Presbyterian Hospital would be imposed on the trustees – including Nulman’s daughter, Carol, –should there be a violation of the designated use.

Director of Community Development Michael DeLuca said he understands Lamoureux’s predicament, but cannot offer staff support because moving the house “is going from a fairly decent distance away from the wetland to right on top of it.”

“We understand the circumstances. This is a very weird set of circumstances, to say the least,” DeLuca said at Tuesday’s meeting. “But it’s not very easy for us to recommend building within that proximity to a wetland.”