OTISFIELD – Selectmen here placed a stop-work order on a proposed year-round camp scheduled to house up to 400 residents on Saturday Pond during their meeting Wednesday night.

Planning Board member Rick Micklon told selectmen that the youth camp is filing under a residential use instead of as a subdivision because it is nonprofit. The proposal was submitted to the Planning Board by Manasseh Inc.

The nonprofit group has purchased 156 acres on Saturday Pond for the proposed project. The group recently sold a similar camp they developed in Bridgton.

“We are reviewing the application,” Micklon said. “They want to begin construction by the end of summer.”

Selectman Lenny Adler noted the property where the camp is proposed is in a residential zone. Micklon agreed and said the Planning Board isn’t certain whether the proposed camp can file as residential. He said the applicant says the first development in the camp would house 200 transient residents as well as dining space. When completed, the total project would house 400 campers, or transient residents.

“This is not what the residents of Otisfield had in mind when they zoned this area residential,” Adler said. “They were thinking cottages and single-family houses.”

“We would like the Board of Selectmen to seek legal counsel on whether this project is residential or not,” Micklon said.

The proposed youth camp/retreat plans include a 30-by-60-foot wharf into Saturday Pond.

“There is no commercial use permitted in a residential zone,” Adler said.

The selectmen agreed to forward all information the Planning Board has on the proposed development to town attorney Geoffrey Hole. They asked the Planning Board to take no action on the project until the community hears back from the attorney.

The board also directed Code Enforcement Officer Rodney Smith to issue a stop-work order on the project.