China planners hear residents’ concerns to South China boat landing upgrades

by Mary Grow

The China Planning Board’s Nov. 26 meeting included public hearings on two applications. The first, on the long-discussed document storage vault to be attached to the southeast end of the town office building, was short, and was followed by approval later in the meeting.

The second hearing, on the town’s application to move more than 100 cubic yards of fill on Town Landing Road, the access to the South China boat landing, lasted over an hour. More than a dozen people spoke, some on line and some in the meeting room.

Board members postponed action to their Tuesday, Dec. 10, meeting, deciding they needed time to consider the information and opinions presented.

A third application, for a new retail store on Route 3, in South China, in the South China Development District, was found to be complete. Board members scheduled a public hearing on that application for 6:30 p.m., Dec. 10

At the hearing on the town office storage vault, Municipal Building Committee chairman Sheldon Goodine briefly re-explained the plan, and committee member Scott Pierz emphasized the need.

The vault will be attached to the south side of the building, near the east end. The two men assured planning board members it should provide enough more storage space for several decades. It will be fireproof, and will have temperature and humidity controls to protect documents that the state requires a municipality to keep forever.

Board members unanimously approved the permit.

The boat landing application asks for an earth-moving permit for the purpose of erosion control on Town Landing Road. Former select board member Brent Chesley recommended planning board members authorize moving up to 400 cubic yards.

The plan, he said, is to replace “highly erodible material” – gravel – with materials like stone and pavement. He and others talked about the pavement being sloped toward ditches and the ditches designed to slow water flow.

Chesley said the town is waiting for boat ramp planks to be available to schedule the work next year. He said the state Department of Environmental Protection has approved a DEP permit.

Much of the discussion was over a broader topic, use of the landing. Many of the neighbors would like it to be limited to carry-in only, kayaks and canoes. This use, they said, would not require the trucks and boat trailers that either back down the 500-foot-long, narrow road or turn in residents’ driveways, and that have to go well into the lake to unload and load boats.

Carry-in would also be more compatible with swimming at the landing, they said.

Planners review application for new retail store at site of former Grace Academy

The China Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing for 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 10, on a conditional use application for a new retail store at 363 Route 3, in South China.

Engineer Steven Govoni, president of Skowhegan-based Wentworth Partners & Associates, spoke for the developer, Calito Development Group, of Torrington, Connecticut, at the Nov. 26 board meeting.

The developer plans to tear down the building on the site, most recently the home of Grace Academy Learning Center until it closed in June 2022, and replace it with a store selling, in Govoni’s words, “general merchandise.”

The new building will be 9,100 square feet, larger than the present one, with a smaller parking area. The result is to reduce phosphorus run-off, Govoni said, because paved parking areas are a larger phosphorus source than roofs.

Board members discussed the existing building’s varied commercial history. Codes officer Nicholas French said the septic system, updated when the building became a restaurant, is adequate for the proposed use.

Board members voted that the application was complete and scheduled the Dec. 10 public hearing.

Bob Hargadon, whose family has summered on nearby Jones Road for five generations, set the tone for neighborly objections to the proposal.

He said the China select board had mostly ignored area residents, “people most concerned about the lake,” and had ignored an earlier engineer’s report that recommended a carry-in landing.

Hargadon and other speakers questioned the accuracy of the application for the planning board permit. For example, one said, the application mentions a 25-foot vegetated buffer at the foot of the roadside ditch, but no buffer appears on the accompanying plan.

Another objected to the application’s saying if the project had any effect on adjacent property values, it would increase them by providing “quality access to the lake.”

Hargadon pointed out the lack of data to support statements in the application.

He and others doubt that China Lake needs three boat landings – the same number, he said, as for much larger Moosehead Lake.

Another speaker noted that the landings at the head of the east basin, outside China Village, and near the outlet of the west basin, in East Vassalboro Village, offer port-a-potties and adequate turning and parking space, not available in South China.

Chesley and others said erosion from the boat landing has impacted water quality for years, and controlling it is a high priority in the watershed management plan. Chesley explained that the vegetative buffer is not on the plan because DEP officials requested it during their review; it will be added.

The properly sloped paving, well-designed ditches and boat ramp planks with spaces between should minimize run-off and absorb contaminants, Chesley said. He accused the neighborhood residents of “just wanting to preserve their little piece of the pie.”

Margot Crosman, member of another family long established in the neighborhood, called Chesley’s assumption insulting. “The boats keep getting bigger and bigger,” she commented.

After planning board chairman Toni Wall closed the hearing, she reminded those present that the application to the board is only for earth-moving.

In other business Nov. 26, board members unanimously accepted Elaine Mather’s offer to become board co-chairman, running meetings when Wall is absent. They voted unanimously to cancel their second December meeting, which would have fallen on Christmas Eve.