Calais Planning Board OKs request for 40-seat restaurant

CALAIS — Pat Driscoll received a site plan approval from the Calais Planning Board Tuesday night and soon will open a 40-seat restaurant called Patricks, at 114 North St.

The approval of Driscoll’s site plan was one of several approvals made by the Planning Board. The board also approved David Fletcher’s site plan for a law office at 68 North St. and a plan by Jerry Saucier to set up four craft tables for the summer tourist business near his business, Maine’s Unique Crafts, at 170 North St..

The board also scheduled a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 9, for Curtis Ingersoll’s request for a proposed zone change at 36 Garfield St.

During the meeting, the board tabled several matters until the July meeting when the applicants could be present. Those matters included a request by John Chambers for a zone change from R-1 to R-2 at 53 Garfield St.; a request by Steve Farrar for site plan approval for Wood `N Things at 139 Main St.; a request by Marshall Elliott for an addition to a camp in the shoreland zone on Nash’s Lake; and a request by John Owen for an in-home business at the corner of Whitlock Lane and Baring Street.

Although the Planning Board gave its approval to the city of Calais for the Waterfront Reconstruction Project on the St. Croix River, members noted that the city already had received approval from the Department of Environmental Protection.

The effort to improve the Calais waterfront began in 1989 when the Maine Street `90 Committee chose the waterfront as its project. The city was awarded a $40,000 matching grant from the state to renovate the area of the riverbank that parallels Hog Alley. The project will include improvements to the footpath, park benches, picnic tables, lighting and riprapping of the shorefront.

“It has been embarrassing long enough for the Canadian side to be all done up nicely while ours is a mess. So anything we do there will be an improvement,” said Planning Board Member John Mitchell.

In other business, the Planning Board ratified two requests that had been approved by the code enforcement officer: a plan to open a Chinese restaurant at 35 North St. and the relocation of Kelley’s Apparel from Main Street to the North Street Shopping Mall. Rudnicki told the board he had approved the plans because neither involved a change in use.