Dear Editor:

A huge loophole in the Boothbay Harbor zoning code allows any individual, group or business to buy residential property anywhere in Boothbay Harbor and turn it into a parking lot as long as they do not charge for parking in the lot. This is exactly what two individuals from Squirrel Island are doing, unless the appeals board stops them. But any business that wants free parking for its customers and employees could do the same.

The site is two building lots on Campbell Street in a special residential zone. The purchasers are tearing down the existing buildings in preparation for creating a 36-car asphalt parking lot. I co-own a summer cottage laterally above where the parking lot will be. My year-round neighbors on Campbell Street are justifiably angry. We all feel betrayed. The value of our property will be diminished. Our quality of life will be harmed.

The appeals board will have the opportunity to hear from both sides at its April 22 meeting. I hope they will stop the project on the basis that it is incompatible with the spirit of the zoning code. I think it likely that eventually the loophole will be eliminated since every residential property owner is at risk. That will take time.

In the meantime, I appeal to the Squirrel Island purchasers to desist. While the Squirrel Island Association itself is not a party to this purchase, it stands to benefit from the additional parking spaces for Squirrel Island summer residents. It is tacitly implicated. It should talk reason to the two individuals at issue.

Squirrel Island is noted for its beauty, its civic mindedness, its quality of life and its respect for the environment. The quality of life on the island results partly from the fact that no cars are permitted there. Will the Squirrel Island people not give thought to the certainty that their creation of a parking lot in a residential neighborhood in Boothbay Harbor is an affront to the quality of life of those who live there? That it will seem hypocritical and elitist? And that they will be hated for it? It's not what good neighbors do.

Fred Kaplan
Boothbay