NEWRY – A restaurant at Sunday River Ski Resort was all but given an OK by Newry planners Wednesday night to add a large deck.
Phoenix House and Well restaurateur Philip Everett asked planners to approve installing a 12-by-67-foot, wraparound deck at the business at One Timberline Drive.
Prior to discussing the proposal, Planning Board Chairman Joseph Aloisio read a letter from the Brookside Condominium Association, which stated that it “is not fair for Phoenix to expand, while we can’t.”
But, Everett said, the restaurant isn’t being expanded. Instead, he said a deck is being added so that guests can enjoy the adjacent view of Sunday River Ski Resort slopes.
“There will be no expansion of people in the building. The state says 300 people inside is the max, so we’re not increasing seating capacity,” Everett said.
Planners agreed that the proposal was only a simple modification and unanimously approved it.
However, Aloisio told Everett that planners still needed to complete a findings-of-fact process on the application, which they would do in two weeks at the next meeting.
“Then, you can apply for a building permit,” Aloisio said.
In other business, planners began work on a proposed commercial business and condominium project, and fielded questions about an application for after-the-fact permits for a single-family home.
Tom DuBois, an engineer with Main-Land Development Consultants Inc. of Livermore Falls, presented a phased-projects proposal by client Greg Webb of Webb Builders Inc.
Webb, DuBois said, would like to build two 30-by-70-foot commercial retail stores on a nearly 4-acre lot off Route 26 near the Bethel-Newry town line.
The buildings, which are to be constructed separately in two phases, would also house one two-bedroom apartment over each retail area. Condominiums are planned for the rear area of the lot.
DuBois said that Webb plans to own the buildings, but sell the condos.
Planners had nothing but questions for a representative of Ron and Lynn Lutz, who applied for after-the-fact permits for their home’s unpermitted well house and an accessory structure on the Bear River Road property.
Building permits were issued by town agents for add-ons, but the Lutzes never went before the Planning Board, as required, for shoreland zoning permits for each structure, Aloisio said.
“We need to look at all of the structures, and decide whether to take them individually or as a whole unit,” he said.
The matter was added to the board’s workload.
Comments are no longer available on this story