NORTHEAST HARBOR – A meeting of the Mount Desert zoning appeals board isn’t typically a blockbuster event. But the first of several hearings on summer resident William Stewart’s proposal to expand his Somes Sound pier and float complex had concerned citizens packed shoulder to shoulder Tuesday night.

Stewart, who owns two lots on the southeast coast of Somes Sound, applied to the Mount Desert Planning Board in late September, requesting and receiving an amendment to his conditional use permit to add two seasonal floats to his existing system. The request was made to accommodate a 154-foot sailboat and several small sailing vessels he plans to buy for his grandchildren.

The expansion would make his pier and float complex the largest private facility in town, and bring its total size to more than 10,000 square feet, jutting 470 feet from shore. The large sailboat and as many as 10 smaller vessels ranging in size from 8 to 59 feet may be docked at the proposed facility at any one time.

“It’s an abomination,” said Redmond Finney, a neighbor who appealed the planning board’s decision and sparked Tuesday’s hearing. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a mini-marina,” he said.

Finney has been spending summers at the Somes Sound cottage owned by his wife’s family since the couple was married 44 years ago. He watched piers and docks sprout from the shores, and floats multiply next door with nary a complaint.

But the couple was so incensed at the thought of a 154-foot sailboat blocking their view of the sound and Acadia Mountain that they hired legal representation and traveled from Maryland to personally appeal Stewart’s permit on the basis that his project sets a dangerous precedent for the area.

When the planning board granted his permit, Stewart became far more than a single property owner and gained the dubious honor of personifying a trend toward the larger and more numerous docks and floats being constructed throughout the sound.

Local residents like planning board member George Peckham have taken the Stewart docking complex as their rallying cry in a recent unsuccessful attempt to issue a town moratorium on dock and pier building.

This summer, Peckham counted 70 existing piers in Mount Desert, with 25 in Somes Sound. “How many will exist 20 years from now?” he asked in his moratorium proposal this fall. “If this shoreline starts bristling with too many piers, that isn’t preserving the natural aspects,” Peckham said.

A throng of lawyers and experts defended Stewart’s right to dock his boats off his private land, while a similar team of hired guns for the Finneys contested his stance, claiming that Stewart’s expansion would violate three of Mount Desert’s zoning ordinance requirements for a conditional use permit.

The three requirements are:

. that any project must be compatible with the area in terms of physical size, visual impact and proximity to other structures;

. the project be consistent with the natural beauty and historic character of the town;

. and the project not be a nuisance, defined as obnoxious, offensive or injurious to the neighborhood.

The Finneys also believe that Stewart’s float expansion would violate the criteria specifically written for water-related structures in that his float system would interfere with the area’s existing uses, and that it is larger than necessary.

At Tuesday’s de novo hearing, the planning board’s prior approval was discarded and Stewart was required to present his case to the appeals board, who will determine whether or not to grant the amendment to his conditional use pemit. The battling legal teams were civil, but found little common ground Tuesday.

Jeff Hole, Stewart’s legal council, attacked each of the Finney’s challenges in turn. The project is both necessary and appropriate, he said.

According to John Sackett, a local resident who manages the docks for Stewart, the proposed expansion represents the most compact facility that could safely be used to dock a sailboat the size of Stewart’s. The boat will be moored parallel to shore to lessen its impact, he said.

At low tide, Stewart’s entire facility – pier, floats and boat – extends less than 1 percent of the way across the sound, said Gary Neville of Prock Marine Co. in Rockland.

Representatives for Stewart claimed that at low tide, the end of his pier is dry, and thus, the 124-foot string of floats and ramps is necessary to reach water deep enough to moor the large sailboat.

But Barry Mills, attorney for the Finneys, countered Neville’s estimation with maps attached to an Army Corps of Engineers permit, that suggest a much higher water level at the Stewart property.

Peckham, who participated in the planning board’s site inspection, testified that the water level off Stewart’s existing dock was closer to 17 feet at mean low water, and that his complex would actually extend almost 10 percent of the way across Somes Sound at low tide.

And the unusually large pier has actually changed the sound’s wave patterns, said the Finneys. They believe that sediment deposition on their shore during the past five years is caused by waves being deflected off the Stewart’s dock.

Hole’s experts scoffed at the suggestion, and said that the sedimentation was likely caused by erosion of the Finneys’ own shore.

Experienced sailors also testified on behalf of Stewart that the area of his dock was geographically unsuitable to both recreational boaters and commercial lobster and scallop fishermen, thus, the float expansion would create no conflict of interest.

Ninety-nine percent of the boat traffic is further offshore than Stewart’s floats, said Sackett.

But sailors testifying for the Finney camp assured the appeals board that many sailors venture close to shore to avoid the unusual wind patterns that characterize Somes Sound. Stewart’s dock is already in the way of racers, said Peckham. “They’ll go inland until they kiss the bottom in a desire to win,” he said.

But Stewart’s dock is not alone. Three other property owners have lengthy piers in the same portion of the sound. And historic photographs showing large docks and vessels in Somes Sound were presented as evidence that the area had historically supported mooring facilities on a grand scale.

“This town was shaped by maritime activity,” said Bobbi Williams, a planning expert and Northeast Harbor native speaking on Stewart’s behalf. “History is consistent with what’s happening now.”

But Stewart is Mount Desert’s sole owner of a 150-foot vessel who has demanded the right to moor his boat in the front yard, said Doug Chapman, co-council for the Finneys. Charles Butt, a fellow property owner on Somes Sound, submitted a statement explaining why he opposed Stewart’s project and chooses to moor his large sailboat outside the sound, said Chapman.

The Finneys have chosen to dock their small boat in Northeast Harbor. In fact, they would not be able to access a dock near their property if they ever chose to build one, because of the proximity of Stewart’s floats.

Somes Sound is surrounded by Acadia National Park and private lands protected by conservation easements, Chapman said. The only true fjord on the East Coast, its natural beauty and character are destroyed by large man-made structures like the Stewart pier, floats and large unwieldy sailboats, he said.

“This is one of the most beautiful spots I think I’ve ever been to,” Redmond Finney said. “But if we sit on the left portion of our porch, it [Stewart’s dock] is right in our line of sight as we look to Acadia Mountain.”

“You don’t need a huge float system to have happy boating times on Somes Sound,” added his wife.

Appeals board members closed the evening’s evidence presentation at about 11:30 p.m. The hearing will continue with public comment Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m.