Developer scales back plans for former nursing home
Plans for Northern Bay Commons in Penobscot have been scaled back to nine units. Photo by John Boit.
By John Boit
PENOBSCOT — After two years of planning and one year of public hearings, the developer who aims to build year-round rental housing at the site of the former Penobscot Nursing Home is scaling back the project’s number of apartments.
The move comes after two meetings this month–on Sept. 4 and 12–of the town’s Board of Appeals. Prior to those hearings, the appeals board had already been meeting for several months to review the development plan that had been approved by the town’s planning board.
Originally, developer Skip Eaton of Deer Isle had planned to build 14 year-round rental apartments called Northern Bay Commons on the site of the defunct Penobscot Nursing Home. Then, at the Sept. 4 board of appeals meeting, project manager Jamie MacNair announced they were scaling back the plans, building nine apartments instead of 14. That led to a second appeals board hearing on Sept. 12, during which the board voted to start the hearing process anew–known as a de novo hearing–given that the project has now been scaled back.
At the center of the decision to scale back the plans was confusion over Penobscot’s land use ordinances, written in the 1970s and amended in the 1980s, which call for subdivisions with more than 2,000 gallons of wastewater per day to have a “central sewage system.” With 14 apartments, the development was expected to generate over 2,000 gallons of wastewater daily.
Over the summer, the town asked the state Department of Health and Human Services for a definition of a “central sewage system.”
“They said, ‘What’s a central sewage system?’” Penobscot’s code enforcement officer Bryce Emerson told the board at the Sept. 4 meeting. “So they Googled it and their response was, ‘I believe a central sewage system is something that would be used for a village.’”
The developers had already begun work on several separate sewage tanks and leech fields, but had no plans for a centralized wastewater treatment plant.
The board and other town officials acknowledged that the wording of the ordinance is outdated and in need of being rewritten.
“We have to just get modern,” board chair Tom Adamo said.
But rewriting those ordinances is a lengthy process that could take years and will involve a town vote. Rather than wait for that process, the developers decided to reduce the number of apartments to nine from the original 14 that had been planned, bringing the project to under 2,000 gallons of wastewater each day and negating the need for a wastewater treatment plant.
Now the Zoning Board of Appeals moves ahead with new hearings, with the next one set for Sept. 29. In the meantime, interior renovation work on the project’s two main buildings–the former North and West wings of the former nursing home–is allowed to continue. Exterior site work tied to the subdivision, such as parking or septic construction, must halt until new plans are approved, Adamo said.
The proposed project, which involves converting existing buildings into housing units, has raised questions and concerns from neighbors and abutters about water quality, wetlands, and the septic plan designs. They have urged strict oversight of septic plans.
“Our focus is on the town and state following their own laws. Recent steps by town and state officials have gotten us closer to that,” the group of 12 neighbors said in a brief joint statement to The Rising Tide following the Sept. 4 appeals board meeting.
Penobscot resident Kayleigh Reynolds, who delivered prepared remarks at the Sept. 12 hearing, said she feels critics of the development are trying to keep working families out of the area.
“Affordable housing is nearly impossible to find. And we are not talking about big developments or outsiders coming to change the face of the town. We are talking about giving young families, working people, the chance to live in, or stay in, a place they already call home. It isn’t about bringing in ‘outsiders.’ It’s about making sure our children, our neighbors, our aging parents, and the people who care for all of them, have a place to live,” Reynolds said.
Jamie MacNair, project manager for the planned apartments at the old Penobscot Nursing Home. Photo by John Boit.
Selectboard member Sara Leighton, who was among the 20 or so audience members at each meeting, urged the town to remain welcoming to families and individuals in need of affordable housing.
“I am very, very much looking forward to the time when we can welcome people into this town who need a place to stay, [for example] a single mom who wants her children to go to our school. I want that for our town. I want us to be very welcoming to anyone who wants to be a part of this town. I want us to be an all-welcoming town,” she said on Sept. 4.
At a walkthrough of the property earlier this month with The Rising Tide, MacNair said the interior work, which is currently framed out with open wall studs, will continue. As for the exterior work, “we will take into account all the land use ordinances, and yes, we will have to resurvey,” she said.
“We feel supported by the town,” MacNair said.
