The completion of the Central Lincoln County YMCA parking lot will have to wait until at least early December as the organization applies for municipal permits.
“Everything is at a halt” until the Damariscotta Planning Board reviews “the full plans,” CLC YMCA Executive Director Craig Wilson said.
“I don’t anticipate any problems,” Wilson said.
After reviewing the YMCA’s plans in June, Damariscotta Code Enforcement Officer Stan Waltz, didn’t initially require the YMCA to go through the site plan review process. The work didn’t meet the threshold for site review, Waltz said.
Later, the YMCA expanded the project, Waltz said, and, in hindsight, “we should have asked for site review” from the beginning, he said.
Wilson objected to Waltz’s characterization of the process, saying, “the project has always been the same from day one.”
“The footprint of the parking lot hasn’t changed,” Wilson said, and while the configuration is slightly different, the lot will remain the same size with the same number of parking spaces.
Damariscotta Town Planner Tony Dater said the project triggered site plan review because the YMCA is regrading, and adding and removing fill from an area exceeding 20,000 square feet. The activities trigger site plan review regardless of whether they take place on the same footprint, he explained.
Laroy Ellinwood, a neighbor to the project, brought several concerns to the town’s attention. Ellinwood owns a 2.5-acre property abutting the YMCA, home to his Damariscotta Tri-Bay Laundramat and Dry Cleaners.
The parking lot construction to date has caused the entire lot to drain into the field behind his building, Ellinwood said. The YMCA should have installed riprap and/or a silt fence to limit runoff, he said.
Ellinwood also objected to the YMCA’s cutting of several trees he said were along the property line.
Waltz and Wilson presented a different set of facts.
“Water has always run onto [Ellinwood’s] property,” Wilson said.
Waltz concurred. “The volume [of runoff] is probably the same,” he said. If anything, the construction has slowed the velocity of runoff from the YMCA property, he said.
As for the trees, Wilson said they “were only on the YMCA property.”
“A majority of the trees were cut down by the fire department” after a fire 3-4 years ago, Wilson said. The trees the YMCA cut down also suffered fire damage.
The YMCA will replace the trees as part of its plan to “beautify the campus” and “fully landscape the property,” Wilson said.
A local landscaper has offered to donate and plant the replacement trees and would have already done so if not for the present delay, Wilson said.
CLC YMCA representatives met with the Damariscotta Planning Board Nov. 7 and will return at the next meeting, Mon., Dec. 5, to start the site review process. Fred Sewall, the chairman of the Damariscotta Planning Board, didn’t return a message left Nov. 11.
The YMCA is working with the engineering firm Wright-Pierce to design a stormwater runoff plan, Wilson said.
“The Y will comply with any rule or regulation the town sets for it,” Wilson said. “The Y will be a good neighbor and address any problems or concerns.”
Ellinwood, an Edgecomb resident and owner of Ellinwood Excavating, said he has enjoyed a strong relationship with his neighbor in the past, when he made substantial donations to various YMCA projects and allowed the organization to use his field for overflow parking.
“I just want it resolved,” Ellinwood said.
The parking lot construction represents the first phase of the YMCA’s plan to add a swimming pool, build a new lobby and new locker rooms, and make other improvements to its building and campus.
