After several starts and stops, the Boothbay Harbor Board of Appeals may be finally ready to hear a reversed September 2020 stop work order. A Jan. 23 hearing is scheduled to decide an appeal filed by McKown 29, LLC., represented by Tom Myette Jr. and Chandler Wright, who owns a 35 McKown St. property. Both abut 14 Todd Avenue which is owned by Harbor Crossing, LLC. The applicants appealed Code Enforcement Officer Geoff Smith’s decision to reverse a stop work order on the Todd Avenue property.

Last Oct. 30, after three prior hearings were tabled, the appeals board appeared ready to proceed before realizing about 200 pages of documents and a letter written by applicant attorney Kristin Collins hadn’t been provided. Collins told the board, she felt “handicapped” and planned on using the materials as a “road map” to her presentation.

The hearing was tabled after about 25 minutes. During the hearing, it wasn’t clear which party was responsible for providing the materials. Smith provided the Boothbay Register with a passage from the town ordinance. “Additional information deemed necessary by the Board of Appeals to make a fair and equitable decision shall be supplied by the applicant upon request.” As of Dec. 14, Smith reported the appeals board hadn’t received those materials.

Myette disagreed with Smith’s ordinance interpretation. “Of course, he said that, but it is not part of the process for us to control or provide the record, and that is all that they were required to do,” he wrote Dec. 20. “The appeal process is tightly controlled, and they have played the game of leaving out the record since this conflict began, at great cost to the town.” Myette estimated the short Oct. 30 hearing cost the town “a couple thousand dollars.”

Jan. 3, Town Manager Julia Latter reported legal costs for the Oct. 30 meeting. James Haddow represents the appeals board. He charges $325 per hour. He charged $1,332.50 for preparing and attending the hearing. John Cunningham represents the town and planning board. He charged $2,058 for preparing and attending the hearing plus 4.9 additional hours, according to Latter.

On Jan. 3, Smith reported copies of the record were delivered to the town office (today) from Collins. “The copies will be distributed to the board,” he wrote.

The current appeal dates back to over three years ago. Harbor Crossing’s first permit application, submitted March 26, 2020, was for a new roof, siding, doors, flooring, paint and a heat pump with no dimensional changes. A second application was submitted June 5, 2020, requesting demolition of the structure and a new build which would include a new foundation, an increase in height from 15 feet to 16 feet and an expansion of 24 square feet. Smith granted the permit June 8, 2020. 

Smith issued his stop work order Sept. 17, 2020 due to suspicion a second floor was being installed. He requested a revised plan, which revealed a new height of 23 feet, and expansion of about 200 square feet, with no second floor. He lifted the stop work order Sept. 25, 2020, requiring no site plan review for the changes.

Myette and Wright appealed his decision Oct. 22, 2020 to Lincoln County Superior Court, which remanded the case back to the appeals board on Aug. 30, 2021. In June 2022, Myette and Wright appealed to Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled in their favor.