The battle over Donald Kline€™s 8,333-square-foot custom home in the tiny hamlet of Truro, Mass., began back in 2007. Neighbors complained that the proposed building would ruin the view, as well as the historic and artistic character of the windswept Cape Cod bluff where it was sited €” a location that inspired many landscape paintings created by painter Edward Hopper, whose works are collected in museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and New York€™s Museum of Modern Art. Kline responded that the house complied with building regulations, and that if the neighbors wanted to preserve the land they should have bought it themselves. Said Kline, "This is a simple question of fairness." The New York Times had this story in September 2007: (" A Town Tries to Protect an Artist€™s Inspiration ," by Katie Zezima). The fight has outlived Mr. Kline himself, who passed away in 2009. But the neighbors have continued to fight Kline€™s project, first in the town€™s Zoning Board, and then in the Massachusetts state courts. Now, five years and $10 million later, the house is done. But just months after completion, Truro officials have ordered the new mansion demolished. The permit for construction, they now say, was issued in error €” and the building€™s owners have 30 days to begin tearing the building down, and 90 days to finish the demolition. The Cape Cod Times has this report (" Truro orders demolition of Kline house ," by K. C. Myers). Truro€™s startling decision rests on a ruling by the Massachusetts court. "The Klines received a building permit in May 2008 that approved the house as an €˜alteration€™ to a much smaller house elsewhere on the property," explains the Boston Globe (" Mansion demolition order has Truro residents debating ," by Brian MacQuarrie). But the court said, "An entirely new building on a different location, which is also completely different in appearance and more than four times the size of its predecessor, cannot correctly be deemed an €˜alteration€™ of the original.€™€™ To comply with the court€™s ruling, Truro Building Inspector Thomas Wingard says, he now must order the new building to be razed and removed. Reports the Cape Cod Times: "€™In addition to removal of the offending structure, you are ordered to restore the property as nearly as possible to its preconstruction state,€™ Wingard wrote. Wingard was the town official who first issued the Klines' building permit." The court's complete ruling is cited here (" Laurence Schiffenhaus & others v. Donald Kline & others, Appeals Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk "). A scant 200 feet from the Atlantic Ocean, the Kline house dwarfs the scale of nearby older homes, as can be seen in the Google satellite image below. From the ocean, however, the home€™s low lines make its size less obvious, as the YouTube video below, posted by the Cape Cod Times, illustrates. \ Opponents of the project point out that the court, as well as town officials, had warned the owners not to continue building while the matter was being litigated. To complicate matters further, however, the Kline family trust which took over management of the project, and has now been ordered to demolish the building, has been in a dispute with the contractor who built the project €” as the Provincetown Banner reported two years ago (" Dispute holds up trophy home construction in Truro's Hopper country ," by Kevin Mullaney). "Construction was halted by a Nov. 30 letter from Orleans attorney Duane Landreth to Stealth Construction, the general contractor from Florida who was hired by Donald and Andrea Kline. Donald Kline died in late September at the age of 76. Landreth acts as trustee for the property," reported the Banner. "In the letter, Landreth suspended construction and gave Michael Bellefeuille of Stealth Construction until mid-December to respond to several issues concerning the accounting of the project and the work done. Although Stealth has received over $5.7 million of the $6 million construction contract, Landreth stated that €˜substantial items€™ included in the amount already paid have yet to be provided." For now, an attorney for the Klines says the trust plans to appeal the demolition order. Said attorney Diane Tillotson, "The issues going before the courts in the next appeal have not been brought up before." Below: Cape Cod Afternoon, by Edward Hopper
