Neighbor dispute puts focus on rebuilding issue

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

For more, see Demolish home or move it, couple told.

The dispute on Thornapple Street has become very personal over the last year.

The neighbors opposing Marc and Marianne Duffy’s appeal feel the couple has manipulated the community’s emotions, appealing for sympathy by appearing on the news.

For her part, Duffy says she and her husband feel they have been bullied by her more prominent and influential Chevy Chase neighbors.

‘‘I feel as though I moved into their neighborhood and didn’t get permission, and that I’m not good enough,” Duffy said.

Duffy pointed to a letter by Jane Mayer, a writer for The New Yorker magazine, disputing some of Duffy’s statements in a television interview.

Using letterhead with The New Yorker logo, Mayer wrote to the Board of Appeals executive director Katherine Freeman.

‘‘None of this would matter, ordinarily, perhaps, but the Duffy’s appeared on Fox TV a couple of days ago, complaining about the Board of Appeals decision, and saying that the County wanted to find a compromise with them,” Mayer wrote. ‘‘I don’t know what sort of process they are referring to, but, it seems they don’t accept the Board’s decision as final, and so, it would seem particularly important not to have any errors in the record.”

The letter was written after the board had ruled against the Duffys and was not included as part of the record, but it was given to all the parties by Freeman.

While a spokesperson for The New Yorker declined to comment on whether it was appropriate to use the magazine’s letterhead, Mayer said this week that she had second thoughts about the correspondence.

‘‘I should have thought twice before using my office stationery — it certainly wasn’t meant to convey anything improper,” Mayer said.

Michael Eig, an attorney who was one of the first Thornapple Street neighbors to complain about the Duffys’ house, said the Duffys have been aggressive.

‘‘Why are they coming at us when the county is telling them they’ve broken these zoning laws and they have to do something about it?” he asked.

Some neighbors have supported the Duffys, including one homeowner who rented his house to the family as they try to resolve the dispute.

Eig said he and his neighbors have always been open to speaking to the Duffys to come up with some sort of compromise over the construction.

‘‘Nobody wants them to be in this awkward and pretty horrible position,” Eig said. ‘‘The biggest feeling here is just pure regret, not just for the Duffy’s but for us as well. I regret where the Duffys are at this point and I regret where we are.”

Duffy said she doesn’t understand why the county has a system in place that allows neighbors to halt construction on someone else’s house.

‘‘It’s not as though I tried to build something on Mr. Eig’s property,” she said. ‘‘We didn’t set out to exploit a loophole. We had to seek a variance and we got permission for everything we did.”