Wal-Mart hearings delayed by new evidence

BANGOR – The already testy Board of Environmental Protection hearings on a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter met an untimely and controversial end Thursday amid legal wrangling over the introduction of new evidence.

The second day of testimony was expected to center on the project’s potential impact on the wildlife in the nearby Penjajawoc Marsh, a 300-acre wetland north of Stillwater Avenue.

But that expected testimony – which opponents consider central to their claims that the massive project would irreparably harm the marsh – won’t be heard until later, possibly in August.

Thursday’s postponement came after the developer, Widewaters-Stillwater LLC, offered some unexpected evidence regarding the potential noise levels around the new 24-hour store.

“We’re going to have to take some time to digest this,” said Department of Environmental Protection analyst Stacie Beyer, who estimated that it would take one month to review the figures.

The BEP convened this week at the Spectacular Event Center in Bangor, where board members considered the New York-based developer’s plan to place a 224,000-square-foot store at the corner of Stillwater Avenue and Gilman Road near the Bangor Mall.

The board was scheduled to conclude the hearing today, but Thursday’s introduction of the inch-thick document prompted vehement objections from representatives of the Maine Audubon Society and Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, two groups opposing the project.

“This is outrageous,” fumed BACORD spokeswoman Valerie Carter at the morning break, during which attorneys clustered in the lobby, looking to regroup after the unexpected development. “I’m speechless that they would be so arrogant to do that.”

Supporters of the Wal-Mart development blamed its opponents for the delay.

“They’re obviously afraid of what the data will say,” said Linda Query of Friends of the Bangor Mall Area, a group in favor of the project.

Widewaters spokesman Kevin Kane said the introduction of the new noise data was not designed to slow down the hearings, but to contradict the pre-hearing testimony of a BACORD expert who contended that the noise from the Wal-Mart development would harm the marsh’s wildlife.

“Our data shows that there is no significant noise impact,” Kane said. “We felt as though we had to respond.”

It was the timing of the response that prompted a rebuke from one member of the board, which likely will reconvene in August to hear the testimony of the wildlife experts.

“We need to make sure everything is ready for the hearing when we have the hearing,” said perturbed board member Ernest Hilton of Starks. “We need to be ready to go when we get here.”

The $20 million project is no stranger to delays.

Tied up in court for more than a year, the fate of the 18-acre development now lies in Penobscot County Superior Court, where the developer is appealing the city planning board’s rejection – its second – of the project.

In the developer’s first appeal, a Penobscot County Superior Court justice ruled in Widewaters’ favor, ordering the city to grant the needed permit, finding the planning board based its denial on an unconstitutionally vague city ordinance.

Nine months later, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, asking for more information, set aside the Widewaters victory and thus reinstated the planning board’s earlier rejection.