NORWAY — Residents are asking the Planning Board to reject an application by Anthony Fratianne to use a barn in a residential neighborhood on Delano Drive for weddings and other functions.

A public hearing is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, July 10, in the Town Office on Danforth Street.

Fratianne, a Portland-based lawyer, submitted a site plan review to the board in the spring to use the newly-constructed barn, which can hold up to 200 people, for weddings and other functions at 65 Delano Drive. The development began as a bed and breakfast.

The plan has drawn concerns from neighbors on the private dirt road about the impact on the narrow road, drainage, nearby water bodies and other issues.

“The application still hasn’t been accepted as complete because there are still new pieces they have to give us,” Planning Board Chairman Dennis Gray said. “So we continue to work on it.”

The barn and parking lot for about 80 cars is in a remote area. There are 18 houses in the neighborhood along Delano Drive and nearby Nancy Ann Drive in North Norway. The traffic to the events will come up Delano Drive, which is a private road off Norway Center Road, according to information from the Planning Board records.

Project landscape architect Eli Goodwin told the Planning Board at its May 22 meeting that based on his traffic count with an average of four people in each home, the neighborhood would generate about eight trips a day per household. He said there would be a 60-car average for each wedding and another 20 vehicles for support services for a wedding. That would average 80 trips up and down the private roads.

At last week’s Planning Board meeting, the board requested, in part, that the size of parking be reduced.

Norway has no zoning, so there are no guidelines for commercial businesses in an residential area.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link