The Cape Elizabeth Planning Board agreed to allow an Old Ocean House Road resident to rearrange her property lines in a way that could allow additional family members to live on her land.

The board had previously agreed to waive a requirement for widening the private road on which Victoria Poole’s home sits, in exchange for Poole allowing a fire hydrant on her property and securing an easement from a neighbor that would have allowed emergency vehicles to use their private road as well.

The neighbors refused to grant the easement, leaving Poole to ask the board to waive that requirement. In a quick meeting Tuesday, the board did so. The road remains privately owned.

The Poole property sits on Old Ocean House Road and has a private road, Old Mill Road, that runs through the property. According to Cape Elizabeth Town Planner Maureen O’Meara, the Pooles are redrawing some of the lot lines on their property and need a town-approved private road to provide the frontage for the lots required under town zoning ordinances.

Victoria Poole said the meeting Tuesday night was “the end of a long, long line of things” that would allow the family to reconfigure lot lines. Poole said she and her husband were moving out of the large homestead on the property and moving into a smaller house they have built on a neighboring lot.

Their daughter’s family will move into the old homestead, which is on the lot that the family wants to reduce in size. The planned reduction would disconnect the property from Old Ocean House Road. Under town zoning rules, it would need frontage on the private road.

Reconfiguring lot lines would open the way for more development on the Poole’s property, O’Meara said, but only by other family members. She said what they are doing is consistent with proper estate planning, though if the Pooles allowed non-family members to build on the property they could run into ordinances that deal with subdivisions.

“They’re laying the building blocks for expansion of property at a later date,” O’Meara said.

The Planning Board had originally required permission to put a fire hydrant on the Pooles’ property and securing an easement over Old Mill Road and Boat Cove Road, a connecting road that is on a neighbor’s property, to allow the town access for emergency access.

The Vanamees, the neighbors who live on Boat Cove Road, refused to allow the town to have an easement over their private road. The Vanamees would not comment on their decision. O’Meara said they did not want any restrictions on their property.