Bar Harbor panel approves plans for club grounds Code violations knot permit process

BAR HARBOR – Hotelier Tom Walsh received local approval Wednesday for changes planned for the grounds surrounding the Bar Harbor Club on West Street.

The hotel developer and owner still has to get state approval, however, for everything he hopes to build within 75 feet of the shoreline, including a proposed shore path and an already-built retaining wall.

The Bar Harbor Planning Board granted approval for building a partially underground parking garage with a two-story gatehouse, three tennis courts, a porch and other items such as paved walkways and stairs. The board also gave Walsh permission to construct a public walkway along the shore, which will be considered an extension of the municipal shore path that exists between the town pier and Wayman Lane.

Town officials have said that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection has reservations about permitting the shore path extension because it would be within 75 feet of the high-tide mark. Walsh’s offer of extending the shore path has been one of the more appealing points about the project, town officials have said.

Attempts Friday to contact DEP representatives who are overseeing state approval of the project were unsuccessful.

The board struggled Wednesday night with the question of two outstanding code violations stemming from the project. Both the town and the state have found Walsh in violation for building a retaining wall along the shore, and on March 2 the town also found him in violation for the unapproved removal of about 20 trees to make way for the parking garage, according to Bar Harbor Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain.

The town’s land use ordinance indicates the board cannot approve a project that is in violation, but one of the town’s conditions for fixing the violations is receiving project approval from the board.

“I’m opposed to jeopardizing what we’ve accomplished so far,” Robert Garland, the planning board chairman, said in speaking of the board’s review process. If the board grants approval prematurely, he said, the matter could end up being rehashed by the appeals board.

After discussing the issue at length with Walsh’s attorney, Andy Hamilton of Bangor, and with the town’s attorney, Joan Fortin of Portland, the board voted 3-1 to approve the project. Board member Barbara Fenderson-Eleftheriou cast the lone dissenting vote while Garland, Ellen Dohmen and Terence O’Connell voted in favor of approval.

Chamberlain said Friday with regard to the two outstanding violations that an acceptable remedial landscaping plan will have to be submitted to the town before she approves the tree-cutting work, and that state and federal agencies have to issue permits for the retaining wall before she will issue a local permit for its construction.

Hamilton and Eben Salvatore, Walsh’s Bar Harbor property manager, have told the board that they are working with state and federal officials to make sure all of the required standards for the project are met.