When the city sold the metered parking lot surrounding the Highway House (E276, L156, Bn 33) the developer wanted to knock down the existing house and move it since it was center of his hew building. The plan was to build a new house on the far left corner of the lot than knock down the old house. Giving him a square to build his new development.
The city and him couldn’t get together on the size of the new house and he didn’t like the cost, $2 million more. So he built around it.
Bottom line is if this was Manhattan there would have been no questions about money. He would have built anything he wanted without regards to that Firehouse in the middle of his development. Money is always the answer to the question.
ps. we like our old house. 100yrs and counting.