AUBURN — Ernie Deluca, recreation enterprise manager for NextEra Energy, said he wasn’t surprised that the plan he presented for a Gulf Island Pond boat launch off Andrew Drive in Auburn didn’t get any support from neighbors Tuesday night.

“The one thing we’ve learned is that neighbors never support infrastructure like this,” Deluca said.

Neighbors told Deluca and other representatives from NextEra Energy, the city and the Androscoggin Land Trust they had myriad worries about the proposed launch: more traffic, depressed property values, drinking, drugs, litter and general rowdiness in what is today a quiet residential neighborhood.

“I’m not going to be objective because we live on Andrew Drive and I have two small children,” said Jennifer Rombalski of 180 Andrew Drive. “The reason we bought our house, among others, was that it was on a dead end. My kids could play in the street, they can bike in the street and go down to the dead end and have adventures.”

Deluca said the company may have little choice on whether the boat ramp gets built. It’s a requirement of the 50-year Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license that allows NextEra to use the Gulf Island Dam to generate electricity.

Officials ended Tuesday’s neighborhood review at the East Auburn School — just down Andrew Road from the proposed site — saying they’d look into other possible places for the boat launch.

“We can accommodate changing the site, but short of the city saying, ‘We don’t want the ramp anymore,’ it may not be effective,” he said. “They may require us to build it, anyway.”

NextEra received a renewed license to generate electricity along the Androscoggin River in 2006. Part of that relies on the Gulf Island Dam that backs up the river and forms a pond north of Auburn.

As part of the license, the company agreed to increase recreational access to the river. They agreed to build a boat ramp for access to the pond from the Auburn side, the southern shore of the pond.

Initially, Deluca said that would have been a carry-in access for canoes and kayaks. City and river officials asked the company to consider building access for trailers and larger boats, he said.

Jonathan LaBonte of the Androscoggin Land Trust said the trailer-ramp would give bass fishermen better access to the pond.

“How do we go about planning for that access, but doing it in a methodical way so folks are engaged in the process?” LaBonte said.

Eric Cousens, Auburn city planner, said the Auburn ramp would give rescue crews faster access to the pond, in case of emergencies. Rescue crews now have to drive up to Turner to put boats in, about 9 miles along the water.

Deluca presented both plans Tuesday, a larger ramp and a parking lot with room for 40 trailer rigs to park, and a small ramp and a lot with room for 16 cars.

None of the neighbors liked the bigger lot, but some favored the smaller lot.

Terry Delano, of 208 Andrew Drive, was not one of them.

“That’s just a foot in the door,” he said. “In a few years, they’ll just come around and expand it.”

Neighbors suggested looking for another site, off Blanchard Road or Waterman Road.

Cousens said city staff was going over old city documents to see if there might be a city easement continuing north from the end of River Road. That might let the company build the ramp without sending cars through the neighborhood.

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