Missing Bar Harbor hotel permit recovered

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BAR HARBOR – Representatives of hotelier Thomas Walsh have located a missing building permit and other documents they say could prove Walsh is not in violation of the town’s land use ordinance.

The 1985 permit and site map for the Regency Hotel on Eden Street was located Tuesday at the municipal building in a box containing building permits from 1974 to 1984, according to Town Manager Dana Reed.

A paralegal for the Bangor law firm of Eaton Peabody, which is representing Walsh, found the documents.

The permit is signed and dated by Walsh’s son, William, who apparently contributed to the mystery over the missing document when he entered the date Feb. 11, 1984, rather than Feb. 11, 1985.

Other companion documents are dated 1985, most notably the plumbing permit, which is dated Feb. 12, 1985, and signed by Thomas Walsh; and a letter of intent between the town and Thomas Walsh, dated Aug. 2, 1985, stipulating that the town would finance an expansion of its sewage system to accommodate the new 183-room hotel, at a cost of $175,000, with Walsh agreeing to repay the town over 15 years.

The letter of intent was based on an engineering report dated April 1985.

“Apparently, the permit was filed by date, rather than by permit number, so it was in the 1984 box instead of the 1985 box,” Reed told town councilors in an e-mail late Tuesday afternoon.

At least three of Walsh’s representatives have made at least nine visits to the municipal building to inspect boxes of old documents dating back to the original Regency permit.

The Regency Hotel permit is not in question, however. The latest flap between Walsh and the town involves the use of the so-called Walsh House, which is located behind the Regency on Walsh’s land.

Walsh and his primary attorney on land-use matters, Andrew Hamilton, are hoping the original Regency permit will help prove the Walsh House is grandfathered for commercial use.

The Walsh House was permitted and built in 1994 as a single-family dwelling for one of Walsh’s children. Bar Harbor code enforcement officer Angela Chamberlain issued a Notice of Violation against Walsh on May 7, alleging the Walsh House was being used as a commercial enterprise without proper permitting.

Numerous photographs taken by Chamberlain and her superior, Fire Chief David Rand, show exit signs, public restrooms and rooms that need hotel keys to enter on the second floor.

Chamberlain was acting on a complaint filed by two former planning board members, who believed Walsh was using the house for business without a permit.

Commercial properties must meet strict public health and safety laws, which are not required for single-family homes.

Although Walsh was told to cease using the building for any purpose other than as a single-family home, pending resolution of the dispute, the Walsh House was used as late as Tuesday for a Maine Department of Transportation-sponsored conference.

Walsh attorney Andrew Hamilton would not comment Wednesday when asked whether he had advised Walsh to stop using the building until the matter is resolved.

He said the first floor of the Walsh House has a historical use as a function room for large gatherings. Walsh does not charge groups for using the facility, Hamilton said.

Hamilton has intimated publicly and alleged outright in court documents that town officials may have intentionally misplaced or destroyed documents related to the Walsh House or thwarted the efforts of Walsh’s representatives to gain access to public documents in an ongoing campaign to harass Walsh.

Hamilton filed a motion in Hancock County Superior Court on Aug. 11 asking the court for a temporary restraining order against the town after learning some e-mails on Chamberlain’s computer, related to the Walsh House, were deleted when the town’s computer technician was trying to fix a virus problem.

All of the e-mails were backed up, according to one of the town’s attorneys, Dan Mitchell of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson of Portland.

Mitchell, in court documents, said Hamilton and Walsh were “engaged in litigation tactics that are highly extreme, unnecessarily aggressive and vexatious.”

He said Hamilton and Walsh, in their “extreme haste to rush to court,” failed to talk to town officials first to learn that the deleted e-mails were backed up.

“This case is in need of a serious reality check,” Mitchell wrote on Aug. 16 in response to Hamilton’s motion to depose town employees on two days’ notice.

“Clearly this was a strategic – and improper – effort by the plaintiff intended to deprive the town of a meaningful opportunity to oppose this motion” to depose the town employees, Mitchell said.

“Such ‘hardball’ tactics reflect poorly on the legal profession and should have no place among professionals who practice before this court,” Mitchell wrote.

Mitchell said the law required Hamilton to give the town a minimum of 10 days notice to prepare for the depositions, and then only after a 30-day waiting period from the time the lawsuit was filed.

Mitchell wrote in his court response that the town staff had not withheld, destroyed or misplaced documents and complained there was “absolutely no sound basis in fact” for Hamilton to tell the court “there remains a substantial risk … that additional documents may be destroyed.”

Hamilton declined to comment on Mitchell’s assertions for publication and Eben Salvatore, Regency general manager and spokesman for Walsh, did not return phone messages this week.

Walsh has appealed Chamberlain’s Notice of Violation. A hearing before the Bar Harbor board of appeals is scheduled for Oct. 12.

The hearing was delayed last month because of the missing 1985 building permit.