There are many ins and outs, and many questions, in the long story of the notorious fence that waterfront property owner Vincent Testa built years ago on his property, across a neighborhood right of way to the beach at West Neck Harbor.

One thing is clear: in negotiating a deal with Mr. Testa last month under which he removed most of the fence, the town not only ignored the concerns of neighbors with deeded access to the right of way; it ignored conditions set by the Zoning Board of Appeals more than 20 years ago when it granted a setback variance for a pool house built very close to the right of way by a previous owner.

The Appeals Board is, under the law, an independent, quasi-judicial panel. Its deliberations should never be guided by politics, other arms of government or anything but the facts of a case and the tests required by law.

When it granted the variance in 1991, the board laid down three requirements for any owner of the property forevermore: if the pool house was to stay where it had been built, the right of way, which is 50 feet wide at its end, had to be “clearly demarcated”; it had to “remain unobstructed at all times”; and it had to be “accessible to emergency vehicles at all times.”

Maybe there is good reason to vary the conditions that the Appeals Board set. As Town Attorney Laury Dowd has said, the town can avoid expensive and uncertain litigation by compromising with Mr. Testa. But it should be up to the Appeals Board — and only the Appeals Board — to make that decision.

That hasn’t happened, at least not in any formal way. The town attorney, acting on the authority of the Town Board, decided that the only issue that really mattered  was access to the water for Fire Department tankers. Anything else, she said, was a civil matter between Mr. Testa and the neighbors.

Yes, there’s a dispute here that is not the town’s business. And yes, neither the Town Board, the Building Department nor any agency of the town should spend time or money defending rights granted to individuals by deeds and covenants. Those are private matters.

But when conditions set by the Appeals Board are ignored, that is the public’s business.

Without any formal action by the Appeals Board, how can the town unilaterally ignore or amend the conditions the board associated forever with a variance? To force Mr. Testa to negotiate, the town threatened to ask the Appeals Board to revoke that variance. And just before the Appeals Board was to hear the town’s request, Mr. Testa pulled back his fence 38 feet, leaving 12 feet still in the right of way, which is neither demarcated nor free of obstructions.

It’s great that after all these years two fire tankers can now reach the water. But Mr. Testa is still violating the Appeals Board’s conditions, which must be in full force and effect, just like the variance the town threatened to ask the board to revoke.

This deal makes it seem the law goes only so far when powerful people want what they want.