CAMDEN — Developers of the sprawling Knox Mill project will meet with selectmen in mid-December to discuss difficulties in obtaining zoning approval. The developers had threatened to stop the project and place the property up for sale.

Developer Peter Queseda said he will tell selectmen that the parking lot problem which has slowed the development is “a symptom, not the real problem.” With the agreement of selectmen to discuss the problems, Queseda told contractors to move ahead with demolition of the old mill, in preparation for development.

Queseda said he had asked the contractor for a price to “button up the project, call it a day,” out of frustration with the town zoning mechanism. After an executive session, selectmen said Town Attorney Terry Calderwood was “too busy” to handle further the mill issue so an out-of-town attorney will be retained, selectmen said. “That development will be one which allows things to go more smoothly,” Queseda said.

By the time of the mid-December session, the developers hope to have problems with zoning completely resolved.

“We are definitely not looking for you to intervene in any way in the decision of the ZBA on the parking lot on Mechanic Street, since the appropriate review process is clearly laid out in Camden’s Zoning Ordinance,” Queseda told the board Monday night. .

“We want to publicly state again our support for the revised zoning ordinance crafted with such effort and care by the Land Use Ordinance Committee and approved by Camden’s voters. The fair, consistent and courteous treatment given us by Carol Chen and her committee is, we think, a model of how a cooperative planning process should work. Even in those areas where we disagreed with the final decision of the committee, we always felt that we were carefully listened to, along with the rest of the public, before a decision was made, ” he said.

“Unlike our dealings in the code-approval process, the Land Use Ordinance Committee never accepted a submission by us as part of a working hypothesis, only to reject it months later without warning. The committee never asked for material, only to use it against us later. The committee never told us one thing one day, and just the opposite at a later time. Neither did we ever hear one thing from the committee, only to hear just the opposite from another Town body. The Committee never said one thing in public, and another opposite thing in private. The Committee never searched in vain for a hidden agenda on our part, which never existed. And never, throughout the hearing process, was there any misstatement of fact intended to throw doubt on our honesty or integrity, or our motives for the project. For this we are very appreciative,” Queseda said.

The developers said they could not continue “under the pattern of obstructions and inconsistencies we have recently faced. If the town hears our chronology and determines that the status quo approval and permitting process is appropriate, we know both you and we will be happier if the Knox Mill is developed by another team. On the other hand, if you believe that the permitting and approval process could be improved, we would be happy to work with you to bring those improvements about. We or any developer will need to know what is going to be faced over the next five years if the project is to continue.