Dear Editor:

At the recent Planning Board meeting of Oct. 10, it was asserted that a 35-foot building height on the east side Shore Land Zone had been “negotiated” in exchange for “view corridors.” The developer’s counsel publicly referred to it as a “quid pro quo.” (An exchange, trade off, swap, switch, substitute…)

Presumably this was a negotiation between the developer and the Planning Board Advisory Workgroup or among the Advisory Workgroup members and carried over to the Planning Board. The problem is that one of the two the Advisory Workgroup planners was Dan Bacon, whose salary was paid by the developer. The developer publicly stated at the PB that he paid the planner be on the Advisory Board.

The developers planner wrote the road map for the Advisory group. It was called a “zoning process outline.” Mr. Bacon’s further correspondence to the other Advisory Group members on Gorrill Palmer stationary, laid out in detail, the issues and process that the group followed in public meetings.

The Planning Board has regularly referred to the Advisory Workgroup recommendations to support their actions.

Who “negotiated” the previously mentioned building height/view corridor trade-off? 

Who were they representing?

Was the developer negotiating with his own representative?

Was building height the only Advisory Group recommendation that was negotiated? 

Are Advisory Workgroup negotiations with developers (or their representatives) the process by which we want to draft ordinances?

Did the Advisory Workgroup even have the authority to negotiate deals on the Town’s behalf? 

What else has been negotiated?

Before the public comments session, the PB chairman stated that the comments be limited to 2 to 3 minutes. This was upheld till the developer took the floor for his 20-minute sales pitch. During his comments he asked to show several large drawings of his hotel concept. The majority of the PB said no, “That it was not appropriate at this time.” With that, the drawings were held up and walked to the front with a lengthy presentation of the developer's concepts. The developer's concept presentation was not on the PB published agenda.

Why did the board chairman allow this to happen?

R.B. McKay

Boothbay Harbor