The Damariscotta Planning Board approved a site plan review from Clippership Landing Development seeking to build a 49,500-square-foot, single-story memory care facility at 2 Piper Mill Road at the board’s Monday, Dec. 2 meeting.
Board members accepted the site plan application as complete after the organization submitted additional ordinance waiver requests, including allowances to exceed the maximum parking lot lighting requirements, permit off-street parking in front of the building, and an allowance to build a sidewalk 6 feet in width rather than the required 8 feet, according to Damariscotta Planner Michael Martone.
The board also determined whatever impact to traffic having a new facility will have at the intersection of High Street and School Street is not an issue for the applicant, so much as it is for the town to address.
Planning board member Jenny Begin expressed concern about the lighting of the building making it appear bright and commercial.
“One of my concerns is any lighting on the exterior of the building that washes the sides so it looks like a Home Depot up,” she said.
Civil engineering company Atlantic Resource Consultants Principal Andrew Johnston said the facility’s construction is aimed at being residential in aesthetic.
“This is designed to be very much to look like and feel like a residential property,” he said.
The vote was 4-0-1 with Dan Day abstaining. Board Chair Jonathan Eaton was absent from the meeting.
In 2022, the organization proposed a 74,500-square-foot, 102-bed facility at the same location, which was approved by the board in January 2023, but was abandoned in November 2023 “due to market conditions,” according Johnston.
According to a press release in November 2023 from Clippership Landing Development’s parent company, Portland-based developer Sandy River Co., the cost of the project had risen to nearly $45 million.
In September, the organization submitted an altered plan to the planning board detailing the now 49,500-square-foot facility with an altered capacity and function, reducing the number of beds from 102 to 70 beds and shifting from providing nursing home care to an assisted-living memory care facility.
Johnston said the shift in care makes it easier for Sandy River Co. to staff the facility because it requires less training.
According to Martone, the project won’t break ground before spring, but a specific date isn’t set yet.
The planning board’s next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 6 at the town office.
