PARIS – Nestle Waters North America Inc., the parent company of Poland Spring Water Co., filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking reversal of the Fryeburg Board of Appeals’ decision to overturn a permit for Poland Spring’s proposed truck-loading facility on Route 302 in Fryeburg.
The town of Fryeburg, the Board of Appeals and Western Maine Residents for Rural Living, a group of about 100 residents who are fighting the proposed facility, are named as defendants in the suit, filed in Oxford County Superior Court.
The suit seeks to reverse the board’s decision or to return the matter to the board with instructions to reconsider the grounds on which it based its decision consistent with “proper interpretation of the ordinance and Maine law.”
It also seeks restitution of unspecified costs and other relief as deemed appropriate by the court. The Board of Appeals met twice in January 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.
The facility would include a 1,300-square-foot, single-story building, a concrete truck pad adjacent to the building, a 34-foot water storage silo, and a pipeline to the water source.
The board canceled the permit by concluding that planners made a mistake in their conclusion that the loading facility would not diminish abutting property values and landowners’ enjoyment of their homes.
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.
Attorney Philip Merrill, who represents Western Maine Residents for Rural Living, said Thursday that he will confer with his clients about the lawsuit. “I think the Board of Appeals made the right decision; I hope the attorney for the town will vigorously defend it and we will too,” he said.
Michael Hill, attorney for the Board of Appeals, said Thursday that he expected the suit to be filed. “We’ll just see if the court thinks the board made the right decision or not,” he said.
A spokesman for Poland Spring was not available for comment.
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