By John Boit

Penobscot’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously on Sept. 29 to send back to the planning board a project that aims to redevelop the town’s former nursing home into year-round apartments.

The move is another twist in a yearlong process that has consisted of planning board meetings, public hearings and appeals board discussions. The defunct nursing home in the center of Penobscot site was purchased by business owner Skip Eaton of Deer Isle in 2022, who filed an application in 2024 to redevelop some of the site’s buildings into rental apartments under the name Northern Bay Commons.

The appeals board had originally set the Sept. 29 meeting as a “de novo” hearing–meaning “anew”--to consider scaled-back plans by the developer to create nine apartments instead of 14, since the original application did not meet Penobscot’s ordinances written in the 1970s requiring subdivisions to have their own “central sewage system”—effectively, a wastewater treatment plant.

But, since the board of appeals has a narrow mandate to only determine whether land use laws and ordinances have been followed, its members voted at the Sept. 29 meeting that the plan as originally proposed at the planning board–for 14 apartments–be vacated, and that a revised plan be submitted to the planning board. With fewer apartments, the project would not be required to have its own wastewater treatment plant.

Both the developer, represented by project manager Jamie MacNair, as well as local abutters and neighbors who have questioned the site plans, agreed they are willing to see the project start fresh at the planning board once again.

Appeals board members voted 4-0 in favor of sending the proposal back to the planning board, which will now take up the revised application on Oct. 7.

Toward the beginning of the meeting, and prior to the decision to send the project back to the planning board, appeals board chair Tom Adamo attempted to suggest an alternate route of mediation to move the project forward. He proposed that the developer’s team, two members of the planning board, and representatives from a group of abutters negotiate offline with the help of a facilitator for a plan that met everyone’s satisfaction.

***Jamie MacNair, project manager for the Northern Bay Commons development. Photo by John Boit.***

“If all you want to do is fight, I’m done,” Adamo said. “That’s not a threat, that’s a promise. I’m done. I don’t want to fight. I don’t want this town to fall apart with all the angst that’s going on. We need to find a resolution outside of court.”

A group of neighbors and abutters have hired their own attorney, Kristin Collins, to advise them in the process. The town has so far spent $19,100 on legal fees, according to selectboard chair Harold Hatch.

But Collins said that such a move to force a mediation process would be outside of the purview or mandate of the appeals board.

“The board of appeals can only grant or deny an appeal. You can’t create a process,” Collins said.

The idea was shelved, and the appeals board moved on to a vote to send the project back to the planning board.

While the developer waits for the planning board to once again review the project, the appeals board decision specifies that “current building activity that does not require a permit from land use regulation or the subdivision ordinance be allowed to continue.”

Speaking from the audience in the final moments of the meeting, Hatch, the selectboard chair, ended on a positive note.

“I think that concessions have been made by [the developer] to make the project adhere to what the appellants were concerned with,” Hatch said. “There was a permit process that was missing. It appears as though that’s going to be taken care of. The appellants are happy, I believe, with what the new proposal is. So I think we’re on the beginning of a win-win…and it’s going to be ok.”

Penobscot housing development kicked back to planning board

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