ANDOVER – A development of three seasonal lots on Lower Richardson Lake at Middle Dam was approved Wednesday after more than four years of consideration.

Union Water-Power Co. of Augusta can now move forward with construction plans after the unanimous decision by the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission’s Board of Commissioners. The decision included the subdivision permit and a zoning change.

The permit carries a lengthy list of conditions.

The commissioners ruled that the project is compatible with the current Great Pond Protection Subdistrict of the remainder of the lake’s shoreline.

The commissioners also ruled that the proposed lots meet or exceed the commission’s standards for residential development.

In 1878, Union Water purchased a 160-acre parcel surrounding Middle Dam from the Pingree Trust, now managed by Seven Islands Land Co.

The parcel and associated flowage rights were owned by Union Water until 1999, when Middle Dam and a 31-acre lot surrounding it, including the flowage rights, were sold to FPL Energy. Union Water retained the remaining 129 acres.

Middle Dam is on Lower Richardson Lake’s outlet, Rapid River, a remote, pristine stream nationally renowned for brook trout and landlocked salmon.

On Oct. 5, 2000, Union Water submitted to LURC a zoning petition and subdivision permit application to rezone 18 of its 129 acres in two separate parcels abutting FPL Energy’s Middle Dam lot in Township C. They sought to change the zoning from Great Pond Protection Subdistrict and General Management Subdistrict to Residential Development Subdistrict for a 12-lot subdivision.

Nine lots configured in a cluster were proposed for 6 acres on the north side of Middle Dam along Carry Road, and three individual lots on 12 acres were proposed on the south side along Black Cat Dike Road.

But review of the proposal stalled in November 2000 because Union Water’s 1994 licensing from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had not yet been issued, and all terms of the FERC Settlement Agreement had not yet been met at the time of submission.

In March 2003, Union Water requested that LURC re-activate the permit and zoning petition review and supplied an update on the FERC processes.

The LURC staff notified interested parties who, in 2000, had stiffly opposed the proposal. The eight members of Friends of Richardson – a nonprofit group of Richardson Lake camp owners and interested persons – and a private landowner requested a public hearing.

This past summer, Union Water met with Friends of Richardson regarding their concerns, and agreed to delete the 9-lot cluster of camps proposed for the north side of Middle Dam.

In exchange, Friends of Richardson agreed to drop its opposition to the remaining subdivision proposal.