The Damariscotta branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will submit a plan to re-plant its property after clearing trees without a town permit.
Damariscotta’s site plan review ordinance requires a site plan for any proposal to “strip, grade, remove or fill earth materials of more than 20,000 square feet in area in the aggregate.”
Damariscotta Town Planner Tony Dater said this language applies to the work at the church, although church officials were unaware of the ordinance when they cleared the land.
The ordinance also requires a “vegetative buffer” along Route 1 for “new commercial developments and for the re-development of existing commercial properties.” The church sits at the northwest corner of the intersection of Belvedere Road and Route 1.
The leader of the branch, Boothbay resident David McClellan, and Duke Dewitt, a facility manager for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, met with the Damariscotta Planning Board Nov. 5.
McClellan said the clearing of the trees began with a volunteer effort by the church’s members to clean up the property for safety reasons. He said he intended to clear dead and dying trees and overgrowth while leaving healthy, hardwood trees.
Instead, some well-intentioned but “over-zealous” members cut all the trees, he said, around the sides of the property that face the intersection.
McClellan said work stopped as soon as Damariscotta Code Enforcement Officer Stan Waltz contacted the church.
“Our hope today is to determine what it is we can do [to] satisfy those codes, yet still keep the church visible, as much as we can, from the streets,” Dewitt said.
Planning Board Chairman Fred Sewall said the town does not want to block the view of the church, but has to follow the ordinance, the intent of which is to maintain “the rural community feeling that we have in Maine, which is a big part of our tourist industry,” he said.
Dewitt said he would prepare a site plan, to include trees and other plants, and return to the Planning Board, probably at its January meeting.
The Damariscotta church serves all of Lincoln County except Whitefield and has about 180 members, McClellan said.
