LOVELL – Nick Castel is charging that Lovell town officials were dishonest and biased in denying him permission to make changes to the Pleasant Point Inn.

In a civil lawsuit filed last month in Oxford County Superior Court, Castel is appealing the Lovell Zoning Board of Appeals Nov. 25, 2003, decision to deny his change of use application concerning the inn on Kezar Lake.

The town has not yet formally responded to the complaint, and no hearing date has been set.

Castel, owner of Conway Lake Resorts Inc., entered into a contract with the inn’s owner Al Perry, a Paris lawyer and trustee of the Pleasant Point Realty Trust. Castel wanted to decrease the size of the restaurant, increase the number of guest units within the main lodge, and create a new, larger parking area.

Through his lawyer, Helen Edmonds of Pierce Atwood in Portland, Castel alleges that the town was biased in making him go before the Zoning Board of Appeals. Traditionally, he said, changes to the inside of an existing non-conforming-use structure have not triggered zoning board review.

Castel said both the Pleasant Point Inn and Quisisana Resort – the two last remaining full-service vacation lake resorts open to the public – have both gotten approval for building projects by either going before the Planning Board or getting an oral approval from the code enforcement officer.

Castel alleges that the town’s position that the plans must be heard before the zoning board before the Planning Board would consider the application “had never before been imposed by the town in any similar context.”

Furthermore, Castel alleges that the town intentionally withheld the issuance of a staff cottage building permit application by the neighboring Quisisana Resort until after Castel’s zoning board appeal had been denied. The permit application was filed on Aug. 22, 2003, but wasn’t approved until three months later on Nov. 25, 2003.

The Quisisana Resort’s cottage building project, Castel said, did not require either Planning Board or Zoning Board of Appeals scrutiny even though it amounted to construction of a new non-conforming use, rather than modifying the interior of an existing structure, as Castel was proposing to do.

The suit also complains that because of the way the hearings were structured, Castel’s lawyers were prevented from responding to points made by the opposition, which included Quisisana Resort, Farrington’s Owners’ Association, Kezar Lake Watershed Association and the Greater Lovell Land Trust.

Castel also said three zoning board members should have recused themselves after admitting to being affiliated with the Greater Lovell Land Trust and/or the Kezar Lake Watershed Association.

Castel is asking the court to reverse the zoning board’s decision and order the town to grant approval of his application.