SUSAN JOHNS
File photo
After Alna’s appeals board decided a series of appeals March 4 on resident Jeff Spinney’s shoreland project, members said the matter will go back to the planning board that approved Spinney’s request.
“Now that the majority of the appeals board feels the boat ramp is a structure, doesn’t it now get remanded to the planning board,” appeals board secretary Mary Bowers asked.
“It does,” appeals board chair Alex Pugh said. Bowers had dissented on the structure issue. She described the project off Golden Ridge Road as earthwork for soil stabilization and erosion control.
SUSAN JOHNS
The completed project. File photo
One board’s decision linked to another’s is figuring into a third board’s work. That issue and several others came up on Zoom Feb. 11 when Alna’s appeals board started hearing three appeals relating to Jeff Spinney’s recent shoreland project. Then Spinney’s lawyer Kristin Collins had to go into a meeting at Old Orchard Beach town hall. The board set a second session for 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16.
Night one included participants speaking to the point of appealing the planning board’s decision in favor of the earthwork project at Spinney’s boat launch off Golden Ridge Road. Given that Spinney and selectmen reached a deal after mediation, the planning board’s decision incorporated part of that deal, and the appeals board lacks jurisdiction on the deal, appeals board member David Buczkowski said: “I’m not so sure that we have a path forward here.”
SUSAN JOHNS
Jeff Spinney’s completed project. File photo
If all the lawyers can make it, Alna’s appeals board plans to hear three appeals Feb. 11, all linked to Jeff Spinney’s recent shoreland project. Meeting over Zoom Wednesday night, Jan. 20, board members said two letters appeal the planning board’s Dec. 10 decision on the project at 126 Golden Ridge Road; a third letter appeals Code Enforcement Officer Tom McKenzie’s Dec. 17 decision, Chair Alex Pugh said.
The appellants are abutters and other project opponents. Spinney removed earthen material he said was unstable, and replaced it with washed stone to stabilize a boat ramp. Opponents have claimed the town’s shoreland zoning barred the project.
Dam site work questioned as zoning debate continues
SUSAN JOHNS
File photo
Alna selectmen said Wednesday night, Jan. 20, they would have the codes enforcement officer and possibly Maine Department of Environmental Protection see if anything added to the Head Tide Dam site should not have been and, if so, how to address it.
If the bench should not be at the shore, it can be moved to higher ground, said resident Chris Kenoyer, who served on a committee that helped plan the site’s 2019 makeover. Third Selectman Greg Shute noted the bench was a request from the town, not Atlantic Salmon Federation, which did the dam project. As for gravel added due to erosion, Second Selectman Doug Baston said the planning board might have erred in allowing it, but if so he was unsure how to “unscramble that egg.”
Dear Editor:
This month, Alna’s selectmen signed a mediation agreement with Jeff Spinney about the permanent boat ramp he excavated into the Sheepscot River tidal marsh in December. This agreement allows Spinney to keep his private ramp, with supposed use restrictions, even though the ramp violates our Shoreland Zoning Ordinance’s prohibition of “permanent structures.”
The abutters who participated in the mediation did not sign the agreement.
Alna’s selectmen threw in their lot with the ramp-building applicant, who threatened to take the town to court over his previously denied shoreland zoning permits. They ignored objections raised by the abutters and dozens of other Alna and Newcastle residents.