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Moose Landing Boat Storage Project Okayed

November 09, 2009 - NAPLES -- The Naples Zoning Board of Appeals overturned a decision of the Planning Board last week, and okayed Dan Craffey's boat storage project at Moose Landing Marina on Brandy Pond.


The Appeals Board voted 5-0 to approve the project, which had drawn some criticism because of the large scale of the building, which will be 500 feet long and 35 feet high, and 50 feet wide.


The project had been approved at the state level by the Department of Environmental Protection. It includes holding ponds to help with the project's runoff, plus helping to handle some upstream runoff, an expanded boat launch, and the three-decked boat storage facility.


The Planning Board had voted to reject the project. Craffey said this week that he was baffled by the Planning Board's vote to disapprove, as he felt that he had met the regulations of the local ordinances. The Planning Board did not agree that he had, however.


Following Craffey's appeal, the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing ran through the findings of fact for its site plan review criteria. The ZBA found them all satisfactory. They subsequently voted that the project was complete and the decision was to approve it, effectively overturning the Planning Board's earlier rejection.


It is now "too late in the year to start" on the main part of the project, and so the large boat storage facility should be begun by next spring, Craffey said Monday. The holding ponds are already in. He said he has been planning the project for three years, and that the new open sided structure should help "organize a lot of things for us" in the big lot's front portion, near Route 302. Keeping the tree line intact and "stepping" the segmented building down toward the lake should allow both easy access to the crew with the Marina and also allow good views to Brandy Pond, still, he asserted.


The difference in verdicts represents a kind of classic split in reading legal documents. The Planning Board's broad interpretation asserts that the proposed structure is, on the face of it, too large and "out of scale" for Naples and that neighborhood; since the project therefore is not in the spirit of acceptable limits, it should be rejected. The Appeals Board, on the other hand, takes a narrow view -- that the ordinance's limits (50 foot maximum building height and so forth) define what is appropriate and in scale. Such a strict reading allows that, as long as a specific conditions have been met, the project satisfies the ordinance and should be approved.


In a related issue, the Appeals Board and the town and its boards have received an affidavit from a Poland man, a former customer of Jim Allen of Naples Marina; the affidavit posed questions about the validity of the original Planning Board decision to deny the Craffey project. Roger Dargie stated in the affidavit that Allen, who is chairman of the Planning Board, had told him last spring that he was going to "stop" the Craffey project. Dargie stated in the affidavit David Allen intended to "use his influence is chairman of the Naples Planning Board to prevent Dan Craffey or any of Dan's entities from building a storage building". The affidavit also asserted that Allen had been able to tear down and rebuild his own business in Naples Marina, as it "helps to be chairman" of the local Planning Board, according to Dargie.


Allen said this week that he recalled the composition, but not the tenor or substance of Dargie's remarks. He said Tuesday, "Roger asked me how I was going to rebuild so close to the water and my response was, 'it helps to be the chairman of the Planning Board and understand the Shoreland Zoning laws.'"


As to the comment about Craffey project, the Planning Board chairman responded, "I have never insinuated anything about using my authority or even fighting this project and his quotation is totally distorted." Allen added, "I've continually tried to be fair and always unbiased while a member of the Naples planning board for the last nine years." Allen added that he recused himself from this project a couple of meetings before the vote and added, "nor did I attend the appeals meeting where Craffey's project was approved."


The marina storage building project had been turned down earlier, as section 6 of the ordinance was not satisfactorily met, a majority of voting planning Board members present decided at the October meeting. Allen did not vote at that meeting. Objections were made then by some members of the Planning Board about the scale of the structure and about its ability or inability to blend into the neighborhood. Citizen comments also focused on the proposed structure's large size and its possible effects on the character of the neighborhood.


Craffey argued there is a large mall nearby, across the street. "The other thing," he remarked Monday, "was that the state approved two 500 foot buildings, side by side. So I've cut back on my original plan."


"Anyway, as a business," he added, "we're very glad to finally have this settled."


By Mike Corrigan, staff writer, the Bridgton News, November 5, 2009


Lakes: Brandy Pond, Long Lake, Sebago Lake
Regions: Sebago


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