By Dan Aceto

Staff Writer

The Portland Museum of Art will challenge a building permit next week for the Doris Homer Trust to construct a house on land behind the Winslow Homer studio.

The Scarborough Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a hearing on the appeal 7 p.m. Wednesday at town hall.

Museum Director Mark Bessire said he is concerned the Prouts Neck estate will encroach upon the studio’s septic system easement if a house is built on the adjacent property. 

“As a public institution, we are responsible to protect the rights of the studio for the people of Maine and American history and to preserve the location where Winslow Homer lived and worked for future generations,” Bessire said in a prepared statement.

The museum has been restoring the studio since 2006, when it purchased the property from Charles Homer Willauer, Homer’s great-grandnephew. The restoration is expected to cost approximately $10.5 million and be completed in September 2012. 

The Doris Homer Trust was issued the building permit on Nov. 17 and has six months to begin construction, according to town ordinances. The museum filed the appeal against the trust Dec. 17, said Matt Manahan, lawyer for Pierce Atwood, who represents the Doris Homer Trust.

Code Enforcement Officer David Grysk said the trust fulfilled all necessary conditions of eligibility and is rightfully allowed to construct on the property. 

Among those requirements are shore land zoning standards that require property be built 75 feet from the water’s edge and 250 feet from the high water mark. No more than 20 percent of land can be developed. 

Grysk said he knew of the museum’s easement on the property when he issued the permit and said he still believes the trust can develop the land. 

“Just because there is an easement, it doesn’t mean you can’t use the property,” Grysk said.

He said if the septic system malfunctions, the town would allow the museum to build a replacement in the existing space of the easement on the estate-owned property or construct a separate system on studio property. 

Grysk said landowners to the right of the studio also have filed an appeal because they are concerned another septic system could be built by the Doris Homer Trust, and extend onto their property if the house is constructed.

The estate includes five lots, that encompass 25,000 square feet, that were subdivided by a previous owner from land where Homer had planned to build an additional home, Grysk said. 

Kristin Levesque, director of marketing and public relations for the museum, said the studio was built in 1883 after Winslow Homer’s oldest brother, Charles, bought a significant portion of land on Prouts Neck for development.

Grysk said it is his job to issue building permits for those who qualify and the Zoning Board of Appeals exists to settle any differences between concerned parties.

“As code officials we have to make sure we abide by the regulations out there and if someone meets the requirements then we issue a permit,” Grysk said.

“If there are issues then it becomes a civil matter.”