Neighbor building an illegal house
According to my reading of the Land-Use By-laws, my neighbor got a development permit from the Municipality that was much too lenient. He is grandfathering an old shed, not lived in for 15 years, and replacing it with a house 6x larger, but also on an entirely new footprint 60' from the old one. Yet, he's carrying the old shed's non-conformities with him to the new location (the much too narrow side yards). He's also violating the watercourse buffer, which is 100' from the oceanfront. The city claims he can move the footprint since it's not worsening the non-conformity, but it is for us, because moving it this far causes the new house to be in line with our house and his neighbor's on the other side, rather than well-staggered, as the shed was. So now the between- house distance (his and ours) is only 12'. I have had a lawyer on this case from when I first heard of his proposed house. We've tried to get an emergency injunction but failed. Now he's digging a hole for the foundation. My main question is: If he was fully forewarned all along, as was the city that we are listing in our injunction as well (even before they issued the development permit), will my chances of prevailing be very worsened if he lays his foundation and gets his house up? Will a judge be more likely to find an argument on his side, so the judge won't have to force him to tear his house down?
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