BAR HARBOR – The Appeals Board has voted not to reopen the application of Portland developer Pam Gleichman despite “a major flaw” in the approval process, the board secretary said Wednesday.

By a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, the appeals board declined to reconsider its Jan. 14 vote, when it overruled the planning board and approved Gleichman’s request to build a four-story downtown building that would include retail and professional space, as well as 32 condominiums.

Tuesday’s vote upholds approval of Gleichman’s application, which nonetheless is the subject of a civil lawsuit filed Friday in Hancock County Superior Court.

The appeals board did not realize at the time of its first vote that Gleichman had failed to submit a written transcript of the planning board proceedings, as required by the town’s land use ordinance.

Board Secretary Paul DeVore said Wednesday that the appeals panel overruled the planning board without having the written record to review. He said board Chairman Robert Garland, therefore, asked the appeals board to reconsider the application.

Town Planner Anne Krieg said the ordinance allows anyone to appeal a vote of the appeals board within 15 days of its decision, including a member of the board itself.

After a lengthy discussion on Tuesday, the board voted not to reconsider its earlier vote and let the approval stand.

DeVore and Garland voted to reconsider the application, but a majority of the panel agreed with Gleichman’s attorney, Edmond Bearor of Bangor, that Gleichman could not provide a full transcript of the planning board’s proceedings because the town’s tape recorder malfunctioned during the last meeting and the sound was inaudible.

Gleichman did not provide any transcripts of the planning board’s meetings, including the numerous sessions that were properly recorded, according to town officials.

“Technically we should not even have considered” the Gleichman application because of the missing transcripts, Devore said. “That was a major flaw in the process.”

The appeals board meeting was hastily called and posted just 18 hours beforehand – the minimum time allowed for legal public notice, Krieg said.

The Tuesday vote is just the latest action in the Gleichman project. Last week, the Design Review Board rejected the project after deciding Gleichman no longer had any legal right to the property at the corner of Cottage and Holland streets.

Gleichman did not secure a new option to buy the property when her initial option expired on Dec. 15, according to parties in the case. The deal between the parties broke down in January after Gleichman still had not addressed a mechanic’s lien that had been filed against the property owners, Paradis and Shaw LLC, for money Gleichman apparently owes to her engineering firm, CES Inc. of Brewer.

The mechanic’s lien remains in dispute, Bearor said Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Bearor said Gleichman and her husband, Karl Norberg, still hope to negotiate a deal for the prime property and proceed with the project.

DeVore said appeals board members were aware Gleichman might not have had a legal right to the property when they overruled the planning board on Jan. 14. However, DeVore said the board’s attorney advised members they could take up the matter since Gleichman’s appeal dealt with the town’s land-use laws and not whether the developer had legal standing.