By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

FRYEBURG – After a few surprising twists and turns, the Board of Appeals has again overturned the permit for Poland Spring Water Co.’s proposed truck loading facility, saying the operation would decrease neighboring property values.

The board met twice this month to deliberate on the Planning Board’s October decision to grant the bottled water company a permit to build a facility on Route 302. At the facility, tanker trucks would fill up with water pumped from a well in Denmark to transport to bottling operations elsewhere.

Attorney Philip Merrill, representing a group of neighbors called Western Maine Residents for Rural Living, had argued that the Planning Board might have engaged in questionable and possibly illegal communications, and that it violated a fair and impartial legal process.

The Board of Appeals voted 4-1 at its first meeting this month that planners reached their decision through an unfair procedure.

At its Monday night meeting, the Board of Appeals reversed that decision in a 3-1 vote, saying planners didn’t err. Buddy Webster abstained from voting.

Then later during the nearly four-hour hearing, the board concluded that planners made a mistake in their conclusion that the loading facility would not diminish abutting property values and landowners’ enjoyment of their homes.

And that is enough to cancel the permit.

The case is being watched closely as Poland Spring attempts to expand its operations into several Maine towns. Some argue that the company would disrupt rural havens, as well as exploit aquifers. Others support it as a clean business that’s healthy for the Maine economy.

Fryeburg residents have argued that the loading station, which would operate 24 hours a day and have a maximum of 50 trucks stopping by daily, would hurt land prices, be noisy and add truck traffic to an already busy and dangerous Route 302.

“Imagine trying to find a person who says it wouldn’t have an effect on a rural residential area,” Merrill said Tuesday by phone. “Not next to an industrial operation, with trucks going all day and night.”

Tom Brennan, a Poland Spring spokesman, said Tuesday, “The Planning Board took great care in evaluating the project in how it relates to impacting abutting neighbors. There is no documentation that we would negatively affect property values.”

He said the facility would sit on a 65-acre lot, with all but three acres left in tree growth. Moreover, he said Route 302 is a major east/west highway for Maine and the water company’s trucks would only incrementally increase traffic.

Brennan said Poland Spring would consider appealing the decision to Oxford County Superior Court in Paris.

And Merrill, too, said he would consider appealing some of the board’s findings, possibly contesting the Board of Appeals’ conclusion that the Planning Board acted appropriately. He also said he would consider appealing the Board of Appeals’ approval of a number of other Planning Board arguments that supported the proposed facility.