Council asked to protect marsh Group seeks denial of Wal-Mart plan

BANGOR – As promised, members of a local conservationist group presented a petition with nearly 2,200 signatures to the City Council on Monday night, urging the city to take further steps to protect the Penjajawoc Marsh.

At issue is a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter, a project which drew foes and fans to a City Council meeting here.

In a 37-page draft order released a week ago, Department of Environmental Protection staff recommended the developer, Widewaters-Stillwater LLC, be granted the site location permit needed to build a 224,000-square-foot store at the corner of Stillwater Avenue and Gilman Road, near the Bangor Mall.

Members of the local group Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development and its ally Maine Audubon oppose the project because they fear it would result in irreversible damage to the wetland.

Marsh proponents statewide signed the document, which opposes “inappropriate large-scale development” near the marsh, which environmentalists say is habitat to wildlife, most notably a threatened bird population.

Valerie Carter, spokeswoman for BACORD, presented the petition to the council and read a statement from fellow BACORD member Suzanne Kelly, a downtown businesswoman who was unable to attend.

According to Carter, the petition bears signatures from people around the state. Some of those who signed said they oppose so-called “big box” stores in concept. Others shopped at them, but were concerned about the project and its potential impact on the marsh. Wherever signers stood on the matter, Carter said, the prevailing question was: “Why build there when there are so many other options?”

The recommended approval comes with 22 conditions that must be met, in many cases before construction can begin. The conditions range from including stormwater and surface-water management to a buffer between the store and the marsh, from lighting to noise and financing.

The order also would necessitate a third-party inspector and require the local store manager to attend a hazardous-materials management course once the store is operating.

During Monday’s meeting, Joyce Schelling, also of BACORD, showed councilors a state map showing that the petition signers came from 136 communities and all 16 counties in Maine.

“It’s not just a Bangor resource, it’s a resource of all the state,” she said, noting that protecting the marsh from encroaching development has evolved into a statewide grassroots campaign. The signatures, she said, were gathered at schools, churches, fairs and similar public venues.

Schelling urged the council to establish a conservation commission, a measure that failed by a single council vote in early October. She also pushed for an alternative location for the store.

Two nearby landowners, however, supported the Wal-Mart project.

Judy Williams said that the real threat to Maine businesses wasn’t big-box stores but rather the favorable exchange rates that have many Mainers shopping in nearby Canada.

She said that she, too, wanted to protect wildlife but observed that people and their needs also needed to be taken into account. She said the city could ill afford to turn its back on the property taxes the Wal-Mart would generate.

For once, Williams said, “the DEP made a decent decision and I feel that the city should support it.”

Property owner Cindy DeBeck said that the marsh has only existed for the last few decades. Before the beavers dammed it, the site housed only a small stream that would dry up each year.

She said that 1 acre of her land overlooking the marsh had been eyed for an observation deck for bird watchers.

“That land is private property. It has been posted no trespassing and it will remain posted no trespassing,” she said.

Nobody, she said, cared more about the marsh than those who owned land in and around it. To that end, she said, it will be protected.

“The landowners will see to it,” she said.

A public comment period on the draft recommendation runs through Dec. 19. The 10-member Board of Environmental Protection, which conducted several days of hearings on Widewaters’ proposal earlier this year, is slated to consider the recommendation during a Jan. 16 meeting in Augusta.

BACORD intends to submit comments by the deadline addressing the draft order’s findings of “the unreasonable adverse impacts of this proposed development on wildlife,” Carter said earlier.

Kevin Kane, a spokesman for the DeWitt, N.Y.-based Widewaters Group, said last week he did not anticipate any difficulty in complying with the 22 conditions. He said with the site-location permit nearly resolved, the project had few remaining hurdles, among them city approval, now the subject of a lawsuit that Kane expected to be resolved shortly.