By Abigail W. Adams
Karl Olson, agent for developer Tony Casella, presents plans for a new three-cottage development on Davis Island at a public hearing in Edgecomb Thursday, July 2. The Edgecomb Planning Board subsequently approved the project after two months of delays caused by confusion surrounding Davis Island’s sewer system. (Abigail Adams photo) |
Developer Tony Casella’s proposal for a three-cottage development on Davis Island received unanimous approval from the Edgecomb Planning Board Thursday, July 2, ending a months-long process complicated by the confusion surrounding Davis Island’s sewer system.
The subdivision review application for a three-cottage development on the lot east of the corner of Eddy Road and Route 1 was initially submitted in April. The planning board used it as an opportunity to resolve long-standing questions about the ownership and maintenance of water and sewer lines installed as part of Edgecomb’s Tax Increment Financing district, a public-private partnership designed to spur economic growth.
“This is the best thing that could have happened,” Casella said. “It got years of water and sewer back on track.”
Casella’s plan to tie the development into Davis Island’s water and sewer lines reinitiated questions over who owns the sewer lines and who is responsible for their maintenance.
Through extensive research by the planning board’s legal counsel, Chip Griffin, many of those questions now have an answer. Through an agreement reached between the Davis Island developments that utilize the sewer system, the responsibility for the system’s maintenance and repair is now clearly delineated as well.
Water and sewer lines were extended to Davis Island from Wiscasset in 2005 as part of a TIF district agreement with developer Roger Bintliff. The complex public-private partnership increased in complexity when Bintliff’s Davis Island property changed hands.
Three private developments – the Davis Island Townhouses, the View Association, and the Sheepscot Harbour Village and Resort Condominium Association – utilize the sewer system. Casella’s new development, the Village at Sheepscot, will add a fourth.
According to association President Anthony Constantino, the Sheepscot Harbour Village and Resort Condominium Association has borne the brunt of the burden of operating and maintaining the Davis Island sewer system – until now.
Due to conditions the Edgecomb Planning Board attached to approval of Casella’s subdivision review application for the Village at Sheepscot, the developments that utilize the sewer system met and hammered out a cost-sharing formula to ensure proper maintenance and repair of the sewer system.
According to the agreement, each development will be responsible for the sewer lines and pumps that serve their respective properties. The cost of maintenance for the pumping station that transports wastewater across the Sheepscot River to the Wiscasset Waste Water Treatment Plant will be shared by the developments.
The total monthly cost of the sewer system is estimated to be $428.85 a month. Constantino’s association and the Davis Island Townhouses, the primary users of the system, will split the majority of those costs. Constantino’s association will pay 46 percent of the monthly costs and the Davis Island Townhouses will pay 45 percent.
A budget for the maintenance of the sewer system will be prepared annually, according to the agreement. The new agreement will enable the establishment of a reserve account to replace the primary pump and secondary pump responsible for transporting wastewater across the Sheepscot River.
Those pumps have a remaining lifespan of 10 years and 15 years, respectively.
The developments also reached agreement on liability insurance and jointly purchased a $1 million policy for the pumping station. The main sewer line that connects Davis Island to Wiscasset is owned by Edgecomb. The water line connecting Davis Island to the Wiscasset Water District is owned by Wiscasset.
After initial uncertainty about whether the line owned by Edgecomb was insured, it was discovered the town does have an active $1 million insurance policy, planning board Chair Jack French said.
With agreement reached between the developments that utilize the sewer system, the conditions attached to planning board approval of Casella’s new development shrunk considerably.
A permit from the select board to access the public sewer line, approval from the Wiscasset Water District for use of their water line, a covenant preventing further development on the lot, and reappearance before the planning board if the use of the pre-existing three-unit office building and one-unit office building on the lot changes were among the conditions requested by the planning board.
After a short public hearing, during which the only concern raised was from an abutter who wanted to ensure he would also be able to access the sewer system once he was ready to build on his land, the remaining conditions were hammered out between the planning board, Casella, and his agent, Karl Olson.
With the agreed-upon conditions, the planning board gave its stamp of approval to the project.
“This is a huge relief,” Griffin said following the meeting. “It has been a really large project, which Jack French really spearheaded to make sure it was a win-win-win for everyone, which it has become.”
“It was kind of painful,” French said, “but it worked out well for everybody. It protected the town’s and the landowners’ interests.”
“They [the planning board] did a great job,” Casella said, “and the associations benefited from it. Now they have an agreement going forward.”
According to Casella, two of the cottages to be built at the site already have interested buyers. Casella plans to use the third as his retirement home, he said.
