Sitting just across the street from the city's popular boardwalk, the Januszes could look out over the attractive harbor on summer days and watch a parade of freighters, pleasure craft and an occasional Coast Guard ship. It was that way for the 23 years they've owned their 1890s home, located two blocks from the downtown home furnishings and gift shop they own, The Calico Cat.

But like so many others across the country with older homes near a thriving waterfront, the Januszes have become victims of development. A three-story hotel was built in front of their home this year, leaving them a small view of the harbor to the north, and an even slimmer view from the corner of their backyard.

For months last year, the Januszes fought the developer and the city to prevent the rezoning of the commercial property between them and Harbor Drive to a "planned development" district - which would have permitted the developer's original plan to put up a four-story condominium building instead of the three-story hotel, and in an even wider footprint. And because Grand Haven's zoning rules measure a building's height from a formula using average grade, its appearance from the street would be even taller - 61 feet high, the Januszes said.

At one point, the Januszes hired an attorney to help them stop the rezoning. They also gained help from neighbors who were angered by the possibility of what some called a "wall of condos" along the city's waterfront. A 625-signature petition aimed at stopping the rezoning was submitted to the city.

"The (rezoning) got turned down, which is exactly what we wanted to have happen, and we have to live with what's legal," Mar y said. "We just have to make sure it's legal."

"And," she added as she looked through the bow window in front of her dining room table, "we have a view to the north and we still like where we live."

Their Clinton Street home has some history. Bob speculates it was moved from the north side of the Grand River in the 1920s. In 1931, a small plane crashed into the spot where they now dine. When Bob was remodeling the house in the early 1980s (it was condemned when they bought it in 1982), he found a part of the crashed plane in the rafters.

The Januszes said they've known all along that someone might eventually put up a building to block their view of the bustling harbor. So they're adapting to their downsized "view," and plan to enclose a screened porch in the back and turn it into a living room, which would allow them to expand their now-cramped kitchen space.

"We said from day one - you know what? It's still within the zoning ordinance, and there's nothing we can do about that," Mary said of the hotel.

But pointing at a mass of electrical meters and a stand-alone, army-green mechanical box just outside their dining room window, all of which were supposed to go on the other side of the hotel, she still wonders how the construction rules are being policed.

Still, the Januszes remained surprisingly calm in the many city meetings that addressed the developer's building plans.

"Everyone told us to go in there and explode is the wrong approach," Bob said. "If you expect to get the sympathy vote from them, it's not going to happen."

The Januszes came close to buying the next-door commercial property several years ago when it was a convenience store. They had no definite plans for it other than to ensure they kept their view of the harbor, but it was sold to another businessman who turned the store into a pizza restaurant. The Januszes said they were pleased with the way the restaurant was run, but it went out of business almost two years ago. The asking pr ice last year was too much for the Januszes.

"I think it's real interesting what people will pay for a view of the river, or a view of the water now," Mar y added. "Obviously there's a market for it."

The hotel developer, who is a local builder, had offered to buy their house as part of the planned development, but the Januszes declined.

"We have the business (two blocks away). It's convenient; why would we want to move?" Bob said. "That's when they came up with the idea of buying the property next door to us, up the hill, and moving us in that direction."

But the Januszes rejected that idea, too, because it would only move them further from the waterfront and disrupt their lives for about a year to complete the maneuver.

In February 2005, the Grand Haven City Council imposed a six-month moratorium on any new building plans along a stretch of the harbor near the downtown. The council members said they wanted to slow things down in order to implement some of the urgent needs recommended in a consulting fir m's waterfront strategic plan for the city.

"Much of that is going to address some of the concerns that the neighbors have had about additional development on Harbor Drive," Grand Haven Planning Director erin Kilpatrick said of the waterfront plan. "Some of those include view preservations, stepping the buildings back away from the road, and encouraging more activity on Harbor Drive and more density; but at the same time preserving the things that people really appreciate about Harbor Drive - like making sure it's pedestrian friendly, keeping lines of sight open and asking for parking to be placed to the rear of the building so that it's not so automobile-dominated as it was before."

A new waterfront zoning district that would limit building heights to 35 feet is also being worked on. Some of the zones now permit buildings as high as 52 feet.

"The waterfront is sort of transitioning now into something that's a little bit more walkable and a little more densely developed," Kilpatrick said. "And now that we've seen that's kind of the trend, the market is pulling us towards wanting to develop Harbor Drive. The new zoning text that we're working on is an effort to make both the interests of the residents and the interests of the development and the interests of the development mesh to come to a happy medium, if there is such a thing.

By Mark Brooky