Palmyra to name new planning board

PALMYRA – Selectmen will appoint an entire planning board at their meeting Wednesday night after a mass resignation of the panel.

The former board, with a total of more than 75 years of experience, resigned Oct. 27 because its members say town selectmen will not back their decisions and are playing favorites when it comes to permits and violations.

What’s good for one is not necessarily good for the other, the planners contend, saying that when one person got a $4,000 fine for a setback violation, another was assessed only $5 – and a third wasn’t fined at all.

“I refuse to continue to be a part of a town government that refuses to treat everyone equally,” former planning board Chairwoman Sally Withee said Monday.

The split between the two boards came to a head last month when the planners denied an expansion permit for a store on Route 2 that would have violated existing 50-feet setback regulations. Their decision was based on their investigation and an opinion by the town’s code enforcement officer, William Murphy, and the Maine Municipal Association.

“We bent over backwards, but there was nothing we could do,” Everett Holt, a planning board member, said. “The ordinance is clear and had to be followed.”

The applicant, Anthony Collins of “Big Ed’s,” appealed the decision to the zoning board of appeals, which overrode the planners. It was the first time in more than a decade that the appeals board had ever disagreed with the planning board, Withee said.

Selectman Dan Sprague said Monday that although he was saddened by the resignations and said the planners had done “a fantastic job as a board,” he disagrees with their assessment.

“We have checks and balances in place,” Sprague said. “The planning board did their job and the applicant appealed to the zoning board, and the zoning board did their job. I go along with the zoning board of appeals’ decision.”

The planners, however, did not accept the ZBA decision. “The project did not meet all four requirements of the hardship requirement,” which are set by state law to establish rigid criteria for variances, Withee said.

“We had two options,” Withee said. “Take the appeals board to court or change the ordinance so the property would come within our requirements.” Withee said most board members showed up at a selectmen’s meeting Oct. 27 and said they felt the appeals board had erred

“We asked the selectmen to give us permission to take the ZBA to court, and they refused. We then asked them to hold a special town meeting to amend the setback requirements. They said no,” she said.

“This was such a slap in the face to our board,” Holt said.

That’s when the entire board, with the exception of two alternates, resigned. Without discussion, the selectmen accepted the resignations and will appoint successors at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10.

Sprague said they would appoint five members with staggered terms and will recommend that the setback requirement be revisited.

“I think that ordinance needs to be looked at again,” he said.