Southwest Harbor’s Planning Board tabled a proposal to modify the Causeway Club’s pickleball courts while also preparing to revisit a long-running dispute over 72 Clark Point Road.

Carrie Jones

just now

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Birch Bay Retirement Village.

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SOUTHWEST HARBOR—At her first Southwest Harbor Planning Board meeting, new Code Enforcement Officer Stacey Gatcomb helped the board as it navigated through a request by the Causeway Club to change its pickleball courts and as it briefly discussed the status of 72 Clark Point Road, where there is an ongoing legal dispute about a guest house being built at that location.

“This is my first time in front of you since the judge did come down with his decision,” Gatcomb said of 72 Clark Point Road. “No action is required at this time, and this is just an informational for you. I’m just letting you know that on September 14, this year, the Superior Court dismissed the matter, and Judge McKeon remanded it to the Planning Board for further proceedings. So, I’m just letting you know this is a notice that the board will … This is going to return as a future agenda item. So nothing will be done on this tonight.”

John Williams, who chaired the meeting, said, “This will be a very complicated case report. There were multiple lawyers involved in this case and some strong opinions on either side of it.”

The case involves Justin Podjasek’s project at 72 Clark Point Road to build a $750,000 guest house where a greenhouse once stood. In 2012, the property, which was a larger lot owned by one property owner, was granted a building code variance from a 15-foot-setback requirement. Setbacks in town zoning rules determine how close structures can be built to property lines. Opponents to the project say that the variance should not have been granted.

“Welcome to our nightmare,” Planning Board member Priscilla Ksionzyk said to Gatcomb and several chuckled.

Williams was a bit optimistic, though. He has often thought, while serving on the board, that parties would never “come together until hell freezes over” and that the parties will be forever locked in battle.

It is surprising how talking to each other and maybe working things out can be effective, Williams said.

“It does no good to anybody to spend thousands of dollars,” he said, referring to legal and other fees, to get to a conclusion.

The board and Gatcomb and others discussed the situation both at the beginning and end of the meeting.

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CAUSEWAY CLUB

An application by the Causeway Club to modify its existing pickleball courts at the Causeway was tabled.

Gary Adams represented the Causeway Club, which is located at 10 Fernald Point Road. He is a retired civil engineer.

The club’s goal is to change the orientation of the courts from east to west to north to south. The court is currently 60 by 120 feet. They will need to construct a new 64-by-120 foot pad and would like to make an 8-foot waiting area, additional landscaping and hydration station. The proposed fourth court will allow a corresponding one-third increase in attendance.

However, board members worried because, they said, in 2019, not all the mitigation approvals were enacted exactly as expected. Adams was not involved in the project then.

Williams focused on the buffering in the area, saying there is a 20 foot gap in the fence on the western side.

“That’s got to be buffered,” Williams said.

If the property is not in compliance with previous permits, they can’t move forward with the application, Planning Board member Michael Levesque said.

“That’s a deer salad bar,” Williams said of the current buffering and the vegetation that was chosen.

The new application has acoustic treatment proposed. Acoustic treatment was part of that 2019 buffering requirement.

“Our current application proposes retaining the acoustic treatment along the entire north side and most of the east and west sides or removing it along the south side, facing the club and short portions on the east and west near the south end,” Adams explained. “These proposed changes are intended to improve ventilation and reduce reflected sound within the ports, while retaining the acoustic treatment on the portions of the perimeter most relevant to neighboring properties.”

The 2019 approval required vegetative buffering. Mitigation at the time was for both visual buffering and noise.

“We recognize that the landscaping contemplated by that approval was not fully implemented, and that needs to be addressed,” Adams said. “The club is prepared to address these requirements. We also want to make sure that what we ultimately install provides effective screening, given the topography and the sight lines between the courts and the neighboring property.”

Paddle technology has changed since then, Adams said, and he said the club hoped the board would look at the current conditions of 2026 throughout the process. He said some of the panels to abate the noise have come down, but they could be put back up. He asked for specifics about heights of materials, thickness of vegetation, and the practical implementations of the requirements.

Neighbors at the meeting said there was no buffering around the court and that they’d like it if the mitigation requirements of the original permit were met.

“We’ll work on this with you, but you need to help us, too,” Williams said. “We need to bring this into compliance.”

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

To watch the meeting.

Planning Board minutes page.

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