Next stop, Third District Court, where Matthew and Tatiana Prince’s quest to build a new home overlooking Old Town always seemed destined.The Park City Board of Adjustment in a 3-2 vote Tuesday night overturned Planning Director Rebecca Ward’s approval of the house’s historic design review. This was the last step in the city gantlet of long meetings and narrow votes over the past year.Eric and Susan Hermann briefly celebrated in the City Council Chambers, hugging friends, after their first victory in their fight against their neighbor’s plans to tear down two existing houses and build a large single-family home in its place on a 1.23-acre lot overlooking the historic district of homes on small lots laid out at 25 by 75 feet each.“At long last a victory of common sense,” Eric Hermann said. “This is a win for all citizens of Old Town and greater Park City.”The majority of board members expressed the most concern at the breadth of the home that would span a number of the smaller historic lots below it, and were unpersuaded by its location in the Sweeney Master Planning District of larger homes on larger lots above traditional Old Town. While the Planning Commission and Appeals Panel in their turns had ruled the Sweeney MPD took precedence, the Board of Adjustment compared the plans more to the historic district below these homes.One of Prince’s attorneys, Bruce Baird, said they would appeal to Third District Court, saying the Planning Department was correct and the board should have supported Ward’s approval, as two members did.“The errors that they are claiming are simply wrong,” Baird said. “You can’t build a home in the Sweeney subdivision and compare it with the lot widths in Old Town of 25 feet. That’s fairly obvious.”Beth Armstrong struggled with her vote to grant the appeal.“I think whenever you have such a huge amount of information that you have to go through, it’s not inconceivable that there were some — I hate to call them errors because they’re really not,” she said. “You just can’t look at every single thing. It’s just a massive amount. This is more let’s go back and see if you can make it better. … Because this goes to precedent.”  Armstrong questioned the retaining walls, and amount of cut and fill involved with building the house that would have two unfinished floors below grade.Stephanie Wilson talked about the length of the proposed home compared to the small-lot historic district homes.“I keep getting stuck on the streetscape,” she said, “specifically to a line where it says the width of a new building shall not appear to be visibly greater than historic buildings in the streetscape or character area. It’s the massing, how large it is looming over Old Town. I question that.” John Stafsholt ticked off a laundry list going back to the original zoning in the 1980s despite later rulings by the City Council and the plat notes of the property in the Sweeney MPD with which the plans conform.Mostly, though, it was the length of the roof, lack to his eye of breaking up the home into clearly distinct modules, and the large size that seemed to bother him the most.Chair Jennifer Franklin and board member Ruth Gezelius said they didn’t see that Ward had made any mistakes in her design review approval, even if board members might disagree with some of her conclusions.Franklin spoke to the board members’ packet for this application, three to four inches thick, before saying, “I do believe that (this was) reasonable decision-making and that Director Ward is supported by substantial evidence in making her decisions.”The Planning Commission and Appeals Panel in their turns found that the plans for the home conformed with the city’s zoning and other rules, and Prince’s attorney Wade Budge made a point of telling the Board of Adjustments that there were no variances or exemptions sought for the plan.The existing homes at 220 King Road were demolished in July. They had a slightly larger building footprint, slightly more finished living space, and were slightly higher than the house planned to replace them.The new Prince house would have 7,461 square feet of finished living space, 5,898 square feet of unfinished basement space, and a 1,103-square-foot home office. On multiple listing services, property records, and Zillow and similar sites, it would be cast as a 7,500-square-foot home.The Hermanns in August filed a lawsuit in Third District Court appealing the Planning Commission’s approval of the home and Appeals Panel denying their appeal of that decision. A suit from the Princes will soon enough join this one as the phase of city consideration of the plans plays out with the Board of Adjustments.The appeal was granted in part, though the part granted — concerning size, bulk and depth of excavation — doesn’t appear to be easily remedied.The board will direct staff to write up the details of their reasoning and specific code they are referencing as mistakes in the next 15 days, and ratify their decision. The Princes own The Park Record.The post Board of Adjustment tosses out planning director’s approval of Prince home’s historical design appeared first on Park Record.