BANGOR – In a move that apparently blindsided a local developer, members of the city’s planning board rejected an application for preliminary site plan approval for a nine-lot subdivision proposed for a 6.6-acre parcel off Kenduskeag Avenue.

Members of the city’s planning staff had reviewed the application, deemed it complete and recommended approval, according to Planning Officer David Gould’s background memo to planning board members.

In addition, board Chairman Robert Guerette said during the meeting that he thought the applicant had met the needed requirements, exceeding them in some cases.

In denying Forrest H. Grant Family LLC’s application, three of the five planning board members linked the subdivision to a larger property that belongs to LN Broadway LLC, which is owned by Judson Grant Jr., who is Forrest Grant’s brother.

The total undeveloped property in question is 88 acres, of which Forrest Grant Family LLC has an option on 6.6 acres.

The dissenting planning board members said they weren’t comfortable with approving plans for the proposed nine-lot residential cluster subdivision without knowing what the owner of the larger portion of the 88-acre tract planned to do with regard to maintaining open space for public recreational trails.

Board members also wanted more information on how storm water from the subdivision and the proposed road that would serve it would affect a small farm pond nearby.

Judson Grant Jr., however, has not indicated to the city what he plans to do with the remaining acreage.

After the 3-2 planning board vote against the application, Jim Kiser, the engineer and project consultant for Forrest Grant Family LLC, said he did not yet know what his client’s next step would be. Reserving space for public trails was among the conditions that city councilors imposed when they approved a contract zone change for LN Broadway in June.

During deliberations on the request, board member Nathaniel Rosenblatt expressed concern about what appeared to be a “piecemeal” approach toward developing the overall parcel, noting that developing such parcels in phases has yielded unsatisfactory results in projects elsewhere in Bangor.

“We’re looking for some assurances” that the city’s intent that the tract have space set aside for contiguous public trails and space for animal habitat be maintained, he said.

Member Laura Mitchell agreed, adding she was “not keen on being asked to chunk out” the project, allowing a small portion to be developed now and leaving the rest for later, without knowing if there was “some grander master plan” for the overall tract.

Kizer, however, noted that his client had no control over how the rest of the parcel would be developed. He said the outer edge of his client’s proposed subdivision was earmarked for open space so that it could easily be connected to whatever trail system was developed in the future.

According to city documents, Forrest H. Grant Family’s plans called for a nine-lot cluster residential subdivision that would be served by Deer Pond Lane. The subdivision would occupy less than half of the 6.6-acre parcel with 59 percent earmarked as open space.

The council’s contract zone conditions for the parcel call for setting aside at least 40 percent of the land as open space and maintaining a 100-foot-wide vegetative buffer around the pond, conditions the applicant met.

Voting against the application were Rosenblatt, Mitchell, and Miles Theeman. Voting for were Guerette and Dave Clark.