In 1996, Steven Rattee went to a foreclosure auction and bought 186 acres of Concord farmland in a matter of minutes. Trying to get a house built has taken close to a decade.

Impeded for years by a legal battle with the state over developing protected land and later delayed by his own fastidious design standards, Rattee seems to have finally moved into the home stretch. The frame of his house was recently completed.

A view of the back of Steve Rattee’s house being built off Mountain Road in East Concord. At left is the structure that will become the four-car garage. Zoom

Already paved, the driveway is the longest in the city, winding 4,300 feet from Mountain Road to an elevated spot with views clear to Mount Kearsarge and Oak Hill. The home itself will be a kind of Cape on steroids. The house will have dormers and a traditional peaked roof, but that roof will be covered in copper and emboldened by angles and projections. It will sit atop a 4,800-square-foot cedar-sided home with a four-car garage and a sheltered wraparound porch.

All told, the design is nearly the same one Rattee proposed nine years ago, after buying

Jason Daneau spreads glue on a part of the home’s six inches of insulation. Photos by JASON ARTHURS / Monitor staff Zoom Purchase Photos Online

the land. The only change is the location, which has shifted a few hundred yards to the rear of the property. That shift was part of the terms ultimately reached by Rattee and the state Agricultural Lands Preservation Committee, allowing him to build on his property - a site known as Crystal Spring Farm that the state has protected since 1982.

That year, the state preserved Crystal Spring as a working farm by purchasing a restriction on the land from then-owner Horace Blood for nearly $406,000. One of the state's first easement agreements, it lacked the more precise language of modern easements and restrictions. The ambiguity is what later prompted Rattee to try to build on the farm.

The Crystal Spring Farm document allowed Blood or future property owners to erect structures "for agricultural purposes or for dwellings to be used for family living by the landowner, his immediate family or employees." It also said that "approval for such construction or placement shall be granted only when it will not defeat or derogate from the intent of this restriction."

Plan A

Rattee bought the property on something of a whim - he learned of the auction just days before the sale - but he read the restriction beforehand. He also checked with a lawyer, who interpreted it to mean that Rattee could build his own house on the farm where he pleased. The property was put on the block after the mortgage lender foreclosed on Daniel Cilley, a farmer who owned the land after Blood. Rattee, president of Capitol Fire Protection, outbid Boscawen dairy farmer Edgar Crete for the 186 acres, paying $216,000. (Today, Rattee has an agreement with Crete's son, Bruce, who hays the land.)

At the time, Rattee was living in a relatively modest home in Loudon (still his residence today) but entertaining thoughts of building a grander place. He drew the plans himself, getting an architect to sign off, and approached the city for a building permit. He had a contractor dig a hole in the center of the farm and prepare to pour a foundation when Steve Taylor, commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture, learned of the activity and warned him to stop, per the restriction. Rattee countered that he was merely building a house for himself, as the farm owner.

The restriction was tested in Merrimack County Superior Court, where a judge decided it was sufficiently clear to issue an injunction preventing construction - unless Rattee received approval from the state Agricultural Lands Preservation Committee. Rattee tried but was rejected in March 1997 on the grounds that the home and driveway would unreasonably disturb the farm. A year later, the court made the injunction permanent.

Rattee appealed to the state Supreme Court. A decision in his favor might have opened the doors to development of restricted land across the state. "It would have undermined the whole concept of protecting agricultural land," Taylor said.

Trying again

The court sided with the state in 2000. Rattee considered his options - including building in a less scenic spot by the road, on the site of the original farmhouse - but made little progress until 2002, when his lawyer came up with a plan suitable to both Rattee and the preservation committee. A soil survey showed that the land on the far southeast corner of the farm would be best for development in terms of minimizing agricultural impact. Rattee was given permission to build there in exchange for extending the preservation rights over the 3-acre site of the original farmhouse.

Additionally, Rattee pledged a series of other land enhancements and agreed to extend the existing farm road - a meandering tractor and horse path - instead of cutting a driveway straight across the fields.

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