The Alna Planning Board voted 4-0 on Tuesday, July 7 to reconsider its decision on the Golden Ridge Sportsman’s Club project.
Jeff Spinney applied for a shoreland zoning permit to build a boat ramp and docks for his private club at his 126 Golden Ridge Road property, on the Sheepscot River. Spinney and his attorney, Kristin Collins, later withdrew the dock from the application.
The board denied Spinney’s application June 29 because members could not determine whether the existing boat ramp is a legally nonconforming structure – one that violates the existing ordinance but is legal because it predates a 1993 shoreland zoning ordinance. To meet that requirement, there would have to be clear evidence that the ramp had been used and maintained consistently.
Spinney and Collins requested that the board reconsider its decision because, according to Collins, a packet of documents compiled by board member Jim Amaral and reviewed during the June 29 meeting omitted two letters that show continuous use of the ramp.
Amaral said at the July 7 meeting that the omission was unintentional. The board will reconsider the vote at 6 p.m., Monday, July 27.
Spinney also presented a new shoreland zoning permit application to the board, which he said is unrelated to the other application. The application is to regrade, resurface, and stabilize parts of his property above the high-tide line.
There was disagreement among the board about whether Spinney could present his application at the meeting. Amaral said that Spinney submitted portions of the application two hours before the meeting, and he felt that he needed more time to review it.
Retired Lincoln County Planner Bob Faunce and board member Laurie Hiestand agreed. Faunce, who was advising the board at the meeting, recommended that the board table the application.
Spinney and Collins said that Spinney was being unfairly scrutinized.
The board voted 2-2 on hearing the application. The tie meant that the motion failed. Spinney and Collins contested the decision and the board agreed to hear Spinney’s presentation.
According to Spinney’s presentation, he plans to fill in washed-out areas of the riverbank and the road leading down to it with stone and gravel. He also wants to lower a plastic culvert on the road.
The board did not take action on the application.
(Correction: An earlier version of this article online and on Page 15 of the July 9 print edition incorrectly reported that Jeff Spinney plans to replace a steel culvert on the road to the riverbank. He plans to lower a plastic culvert. The Lincoln County News regrets the error.)
