Residents think that a plot of land on Wilson Lake should not be developed.
WILTON – After extensive discussion Thursday, the Planning Board tabled action on an application for a permit to build a driveway near Wilson Lake.
It agreed to visit the site and consult with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection before making a decision.
Dennis Landry told planners he wants to build a driveway on a lot he recently purchased next to his house lot off Woodland Avenue. Landry said he plans to build a guest cottage on the property but would not use the driveway for his existing house lot. He has a driveway on the other side of his property.
The new lot has frontage on Wilson Lake, a concern for some residents. Code Enforcement Officer Brenda Medcoff said she walked part of the property, and there was not much of a slope leading to the water, and there was a large buffer strip there.
Dennis Taylor of Taylor Made Homes, who prides himself on being “pro-development,” said in a letter to officials that he does not consider the area to be developable. “The undeveloped area surrounding this cove is an extensive drainage/filtering system that is working hard to compensate for pre-existing development upstream,” Taylor said.
The pre-existing development is the large parking area at the Bass-Wilson building and streets and driveways nearby that are related to fairly congested residential structures. “The disturbance of the existing soils will release contaminants that are presently held in the soil and introduce them to the lake by way of several streams and rivulets on the property,” Taylor added.
Medcoff said Landry would be required to meet certain requirements in order to minimize any drainage into the lake. She said pictures of the area will be sent to DEP with Landry’s permit-by-rule application. She is asking DEP to inspect the area.
Planners and Medcoff agreed that there is nothing in the town’s ordinance that would stop Landry from building the driveway, unless DEP refused to allow it. “If he gets the permits and meets the standards of the ordinance and comprehensive plan we are very limited on what we can do,” Medcoff said.
But Nancy Prince, a member of the Friends of Wilson Lake Board of Directors, said she served on the town’s Comprehensive Plan Committee when the plan was updated in 1994. She said she was part of a survey to identify areas to be protected and the area where Landry now wants to build the driveway is one.
She said the committee wrote a letter to town officials in 1994 saying that the heavily wooded area had good forest duff, providing some protection of the lake, but if the area was to be disturbed a great deal of contamination of the lake would occur. “I’m appalled that this could legally be done,” Prince said. She would like to see the area zoned as resource protection, she said.
Prince also said the area has abundant wildlife, including, birds, deer, moose, and a bald eagle that perches in a tree there. Planner Keith Swett said the town must follow the ordinances. “A lot of what we do up here isn’t necessarily what we like to do or what we want to do,” he said.
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