Dreamhouse deferred

They were not.

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La Perle has been working for 10 years to build his house, and he has been blocked and tackled by a small group of Beacon Hill neighbors at every step. Lawsuit has followed lawsuit, which the neighbors have filed against him and any board or commission that has granted the man a permit or variance for his project. Building codes do allow La Perle to construct a single- or multifamily building up to 65 feet tall on the property without a zoning variance, as long as the square footage is limited to twice the 1,500-square-foot lot size and his design meets architectural standards for the Hill. But he wanted something else, a two-family property some 20 feet shorter than allowed but with 4,500 square feet of livable space -- which would let him defray construction costs by taking on a partner who would occupy one unit while he lives in the second. Opponents say his planned building will destroy the historic character of the neighborhood (as they allege in their most recent lawsuit), ruin their views of the Esplanade, and cast a new afternoon shadow on their roof decks. Despite the opposition, La Perle has finally gathered all the permits he needs to start building his two-family. Yet there is one more lawsuit still on the table. He says it’s the only obstacle left between him and his dream.

But observers say there is another factor ensuring that even if this lawsuit is unsuccessful, his battle will be far from over. That factor is George La Perle himself.

“He was the wrong person to develop this parcel because he was a bull in a china shop,” says Mike Ross, Boston City Council president and representative for Beacon Hill who tried, and failed, to broker a peace between the feuding neighbors back in 2006.

Others blame a gaggle of ill-spirited neighbors for driving La Perle to distraction. “George is not a villain,” says Elise Hills, a Beacon Hill neighbor and friend of La Perle’s. She says the feud was started by some non-abutting neighbors who were upset about losing their views. It escalated when a group of them started showing up at public meetings where they “put down and belittled” La Perle. His opponents not only filed lawsuits, says Hills, some even began taunting La Perle in social settings as well. “He’s just a person chasing the American dream. I can’t believe what he endures on a daily basis because of this.”

Neighbors like Hills say this fight isn’t about building a home anymore. It’s about clashing personalities, fueled by a fundamental disagreement over how to behave on Beacon Hill, and the ability of lawyers -- and those with pockets deep enough to support them -- to keep a grudge match going and going.

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When La Perle, a single, 47-year-old pilot for Delta Airlines originally from Bakersfield, California, first settled in Boston in the early 1990s, he fell in love with the city, its graceful architecture, moderate pace, and friendly neighborhoods. Soon enough, he was inspired to create a stunning new home on Beacon Hill, and the only available lot was the eyesore on Beaver Place. “It was a lonely, forlorn property that sang out to be fixed,” La Perle says.

La Perle did some research and learned that the parcel, which once included a carport and storage building, was developed by the Metropolitan Park Commission in 1916 to house equipment to maintain the Esplanade. The Commonwealth declared it surplus park property in 1983 and tried unsuccessfully to sell it for park use. In 1999, La Perle started lobbying the Legislature to draft and pass a bill that would allow the property to be used for non-park purposes and to be sold at a closed auction, which finally took place in 2002. However, he lost out to a developer. But that developer eventually walked away from the property. La Perle won the second auction and bought the roughly 1,500-square-foot lot for $457,000. At the time, he predicted it would take him about a year to complete planning, permitting, and construction. That was in 2003.

La Perle is short, muscular, and fit, with a shaved head. He wears casual shirts and jeans when he’s on terra firma, and his small Pinckney Street apartment looks like a cross between a bachelor pad and an architectural office. It’s filled with boxes of models of his project, shadow studies, books about local architecture, reams of legal papers and house plans, other remnants of his decade-long battle -- and not much more.

“I thought we would eventually gain the respect and consideration of our neighbors and they would say, ‘It’s not an easy process. This isn’t precisely what we have in mind, but the powers that be have gone through this with a fine-tooth comb,’ ” says La Perle when asked why he has kept going for 10 years. He says that small victories -- through the granting of each permit and variance, which allowed him to demolish the carport and storage building in 2005 and rebuild a wall on the property line -- have given him the strength to keep going. He’s even managed to find a silver lining in the latest lawsuit, due to be heard next month. “This lawsuit started eight to 10 strong, and now it’s down” to four plaintiffs, he says. This he counts as progress. But he has miles to go before Moving Day.

The four neighbors who are suing both La Perle and the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission (BHAC), charged by the Legislature to watch over building exteriors in the Beacon Hill Historic District, assert that the proposed home will “destroy” the neighborhood’s historic character, according to their lawsuit. The plaintiffs (who were advised by their attorney, Jonathan Fitch of Sally & Fitch LLP, not to comment for this article) are appealing the Certificate of Appropriateness given by the BHAC, which ruled that La Perle’s design for a freestanding four-story beige stucco-clad town house with green trim nicely melds the architectural styles on both Beaver Place and Mugar Way. This latest lawsuit is the only way that the neighbors can stop La Perle from building. If a court revokes the certificate, it essentially revokes his building permits.

The lawsuit is a bit of an outlier compared with the other suits that were filed regarding 45 Beaver Place, the project’s official address. The BHAC and its members -- who include architects, a lawyer, a historic preservation expert, and a real estate agent, all of whom live on Beacon Hill -- have been sued before, as have most of the other zoning and regulatory commissions that deal with the inflammatory issue of Boston real estate. Yet the BHAC has not, in recent memory, been sued for granting a Certificate of Appropriateness, according to Joel Pierce, the commission’s longtime chairman, a 30-year Beacon Hill resident, and a lawyer. (Pierce also can’t recall a building project dragging on this long.)

The plaintiffs have tapped a historic preservation expert, Sara Chase of Lexington, to testify on their behalf at the upcoming trial. In her affidavit, she says Beaver Place is unique on the Hill because of the density of 2½-story carriage houses that date to the mid-to-late 1800s. There are four on Beaver Place, three of which are lined up directly next to La Perle’s property; one is a full three stories. (The rest of the structures on the street are four or more stories.) The previous MDC carport and storage building that once occupied the lot -- designed, the plaintiffs point out, by a “talented” architect of the day -- were the same height as the carriage house next to it, and so should La Perle’s house be, say Chase and the lawsuit.

Pierce isn’t sure exactly what the city’s lawyers will do to defend the BHAC from the allegations of improperly granting the Certificate of Appropriateness, since the very nature of “appropriateness” is a qualitative one and the BHAC is statutorily charged by the Legislature with making the call. Pierce, for one, says that the commission remains confident it did the right thing and that La Perle’s building will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

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It’s clear La Perle is a man who doesn’t like being told what to do, or what not to do, and he takes pride in the fact that he hasn’t let the opposition get him down -- not yet, anyway. “I’ve been putting everything into this,” he says. “I am driving myself crazy and I am going broke, but I get glimpses of a sense of completion. Hitting milestones over time gives me some hope.”

He measures his words carefully as he speaks, as if letting his guard down would allow his real feelings of frustration and anger at his neighbors to burst out. This, it seems, has been a problem in the past.

“George is not known for his tact,” says Suzanne Besser, executive director of the Beacon Hill Civic Association and a former reporter for the Beacon Hill Times who covered many of the meetings at which La Perle appeared. “I saw him blow up at one of his zoning and licensing meetings. You have to remain cool under those situations. He’s the only one that I have ever seen blow up in front of a board like that, which is not a good thing to do in front of a roomful of people who you are asking for something.”

“George is a very interesting character,” says Ross, the councilor. “Who would go into meetings and get into fights with people?” Ross admits that he was so intimidated by La Perle after seeing his outbursts that he tried to make sure there were always other people present whenever he met with him. “What I told George was, ‘George, you’re your own worst enemy. I appreciate your passion and we want you to get this thing built, but you need to be managed. You need to have someone guide you through this process, because you are making this worse for yourself.’ He would snap at people.”

Some observers say it’s easy to understand why a man might be driven to outrage, especially given how long he’s been working on this project. “He’s put a lot of money into this . . . and he hasn’t even put in pilings yet. He’s still got a long road ahead of him,” says Eugene Clapp, the former president and a current member of the Union Boat Club, La Perle’s direct abutter. He adds that his dealings with La Perle were all “arm’s-length professional.”

La Perle’s good friend and advocate Eugene Teixeira, a 30-year Beacon Hill resident, says that he has never seen La Perle behave inappropriately in public meetings. “Some people told me he can be very abrasive,” says Teixeira, whose apartment building backs up to Beaver Place. “I said, ‘You know, the guy’s been fighting for something for quite a long time, and if it was me, I’d be far more abrasive than he has been at meetings.’ And they said, ‘Well, that’s really what’s hurting him.’ I said I don’t believe that. I don’t accept that as a reason.”

La Perle seems aware of the accusations about his temper. To a certain extent, he pleads guilty. “Ya, people thought I was abrasive because I said, ‘Look, this has got to be done because to move from A to C requires B, and you’re responsible for B.’ ”

But La Perle isn’t the only one who hates to be told what to do. His neighbors -- including current plaintiffs Kathryn C. Hollett and Linda Soohoo of 95 Beacon Street (which backs up to Beaver Place); David Podolsky, owner of 93 Beacon Street; and Lisa Micali of 27 Beaver Place -- have filed suit against every approval, variance, and building permit that La Perle has received, and some appeals were filed against permits that hadn’t even been issued yet. Some think the neighbors -- several of them lawyers themselves -- have been battling with him over the years because, while they all appear to care very much about preserving Beacon Hill, what they really want is to just stop La Perle. Period. “It’s a clash of personalities,” says Besser.

Fortunately for La Perle, the merits of his project, and not his alleged personality flaws or popularity with the Hill folk, are the only thing that the many commissions and boards are statutorily allowed to care about when deciding whether to let the project proceed. This is why, despite the feud, the project today is fully permitted. La Perle is waiting for the bench trial in Suffolk Superior Court on his neighbors’ lawsuit, scheduled for December 14, before proceeding with work, fearing that if he starts construction, the judge could issue a stop-work order until the matter is adjudicated. The lawsuit has also had the effect of making it improbable that he’d be able to secure a construction loan or find a partner for the project until it’s resolved. So, for now, La Perle is in waiting mode, and the lack of momentum is the hardest part.

“When you deal with so many absurdities,” he says, “you can’t help but clench your fist and just scream into the air. It’s the avenue of the absurd.”

Kris Frieswick is a frequent contributor to the Globe Magazine. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.