The Boothbay Harbor planning board voted, 3 to 2, to approve the application by St. Andrews Village to bring construction vehicles through the 189 Middle Road back entrance through March 31, 2016.

The application was approved after a site plan visit to St. Andrews Village was held Monday, July 13.

The construction vehicles, estimated to be number approximately four per day until after August, at which point it will be between one and four for the remainder of the project, will be working on the new Zimmerli Pavilion.

The Zimmerli Pavilion will be a skilled services expansion, and has been named after the late Rev. Dr. Mary Jo Zimmerli, who was a trustee of Lincoln County Healthcare.

The application is an amendment to the original site plan review from 2002, which approved only emergency traffic (ambulances, police vehicles, etc.) to use the private road entrance. According to Director of Operations Patrick Parson, a number of additional people use this entrance, including laundry service, maintenance, mail couriers, and the dietary staff.

Parson also said that a number of non-authorized vehicles use this entrance, but that enforcement has been difficult as every time a gate or barrier has been erected, it has been vandalized in “a few weeks at most.”

Parson said LCH wanted to use this entrance to create a safer environment, so trucks could avoid coming into town and using the Emery Lane entrance and traveling up the winding road among the cottages.

“It's safer for the community as a whole,” Parson said.

At the original planning board meeting held July 8, a few neighbors spoke out against the proposal.

“I have owned our property 30 years,” said Ruth Watts of Middle Road, whose property abuts the private road about 200 feet to the south. “I look at this as quite a safety issue, as a lot of people bike and walk Middle Road and there is no sidewalk. It's not a safe place to have huge construction vehicles on.”

“They are talking cranes and tractor-trailers coming up that road,” Alan Watts said. “They need maneuvering room with wide load trucks, which Middle Road isn't designed to handle.”

Planning Board member Chris Swanson suggested a site plan visit since some issues had been brought up. The other members of the board agreed.

At the site visit, the planning board gathered with Parson, who took them from the St. Andrews parking lot down the private road and across Middle Road. He pointed out the most recently destroyed gate, the pieces of which were still on the property.

“You can pretty much see up and down the road, and larger vehicles can see over the slight lip where the road bends,” Parson said. At the time of the visit, there were a couple of construction vehicles (not related to the Zimmerli project) working in the area.

When the board reconvened after the visit, Swanson suggested erecting a temporary speed limit sign on the private road; 10 mph was suggested.

Board member Tom Churchill suggested that in the future, the road should be paved and made available for all employees to use, but for now the original approval from back in 2002 called for a gate to be erected.

“At some point it becomes a police enforcement issue,” board member John Hochstein said. “They made a good faith effort to create a gate; it keeps getting torn down.”'

“There was significant discussion in the 2002 minutes that this road was not meant to be a cut through,” Board Chairman Mike Tomko said.

“We are being asked to shift the danger from the St. Andrews residents to another segment of the population,” board member Andy Shepard said. “And people expect heavier traffic along Route 27.”

“This whole discussion seems silly,” Churchill said. “It's four trucks a day, and the potential points of conflict along Route 27 are much higher.”

The planning board went over the findings of fact and took a vote, which passed three to two, to approve the application through March 31, 2016, at which point all the conditions of the original 2002 application would apply again, including having a gate erected. Swanson, Hochstein, and Churchill voted for, while Shepard and Tomko voted against.

There was some discussion as to whether or not to add a condition about the number of vehicles allowed in, but such a condition was deemed unenforceable on the advice of Code Enforcement Officer Geoff Smith.

“So we have to put up with as many vehicles that want to go through there during construction,” Ruth Watts said after the vote.

“They get free reign again,” Alan Watts said.

Churchill replied that it would only be through March 31, 2016, at which point original conditions would reapply.

“I'm opposed to our lives being disrupted so their people in the village lives don't get interrupted,” Ruth Watts said. “I don't think that we're getting what we pay for in taxes.”

Ruth Watts then spoke directly to Parson about the traffic going through the private road, saying: “You're saying only one to four (vehicles) but obviously you're not controlling it and you don't really pretend to care about controlling it.”

“I do, and I will,” Parson replied.

The next planning board meeting will take place Aug. 12 at 6 p.m.