Planning Board wants more info on controversial Marblehead house

MARBLEHEAD – A Planning Board request for further information has thrown another obstacle into Wayne Johnson?s quest for a legal safeguard for his court-threatened $1.1 million home on Bubier Road.The planners asked Attorney Charles LeRay, who represents Johnson and a group called Citizens for Common Sense Zoning, to come back Jan. 4 with more information on the Zoning Bylaw change they requested, which would lower the required frontage for a single-family house lot from 100 to 75 feet and make Johnson?s house lot legal.Johnson is hoping that a special Town Meeting can be called to decide on the bylaw change. Selectmen refused to call one when he and 200 other citizens petitioned them for one last summer, but he can still have a special Town Meeting called by a justice of the peace if he files another petition with 100 signatures.If the Planning Board concludes its hearing and makes a recommendation on the bylaw change Jan. 4, the earliest a special Town Meeting can be called is 21 days after that, or Jan. 25 at the earliest. At that point Johnson and the citizens committee would have to bring a quorum of 300 voters to the Marblehead Veterans Middle School auditorium to debate and vote on his amendment n and it would require a two-thirds vote to pass. Once the amendment is approved the Attorney General will review it to ensure its legality. Town Clerk Robin Michaud received notification of the Attorney General?s approval of May?s bylaw changes just recently.That means that Johnson could be waiting until June or later to know if his bylaw change was in effect. If the bylaw change is held until the annual Town Meeting in May it could take another year to become law.The change was originally intended to nullify a Land Court lawsuit brought by Johnson?s neighbor, John Schey. After 15 years the Land Court has found Johnson?s home to be in violation of the Zoning Bylaw and ordered him to raze it or move it by Oct. 4 or face civil contempt charges. The house is still there and Schey?s lawyer, Attorney Frank McElroy, has sought a contempt complaint against Johnson in Land Court. Johnson has meanwhile appealed the Land Court decision to the state Appeals Court.Johnson has said that he has gathered the 100 signatures needed to authorize a justice of the peace to call a special Town Meeting, and he has a justice of the peace ready to call one once the signatures have been certified by the town clerk.