Stop work order issued for HiLo house

Following up on complaints from HiLo Shores neighbors, the Shelter Island Building Department issued a stop work order last Friday on construction at a house at 11 Hillside Drive. The property owners listed at the site are Keith Granet and Jon Vaszauskas, whose address is listed in Los Angeles. They didn’t return a request for comment.

Building Inspector Brett Poleshuk visited the site and determined that work being done was not approved and failed to meet code, according to Building Inspector Reed Karen.

The architectural plans for the construction were drawn by Northampton-based Henry Muff Architects. Mr. Reed said the retaining wall was not part of the approved architects drawings, but was something undertaken by J. Foley Construction of Riverhead.

“We spoke to the project architect who did not design the retaining wall — apparently the contractor winged it, because they didn’t want to wait for an engineered solution,” Mr. Karen said in an emailed response to a question about the situation.

James Foley, the contractor, chose not to comment.

It sometimes happens that circumstances present themselves that don’t fit with originally designed and approved plans. When that happens, it’s necessary to return to the Building Department and any boards that might have been involved in approving the original plans with alternatives for dealing with the problem.

Mr. Karen said he thinks stop work orders are issued eight to 10 times a year on projects and “a lot more [were] issued at the start of COVID when we had the work shut down,” Mr. Karen said. “But that was an aberration.”

The usual approach to a situation deemed to be beyond what was approved is to speak with the owner or to write a letter to the owner about concerns.

“Generally we try to avoid going to the extent of a stop work order, and deal with it either verbally or with a letter,” Mr. Karen said.