By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

The Cape Elizabeth Planning Board has put the brakes on what looked like a quick final site plan approval for the proposed Eastman Meadows project – a 46-unit condominium development along Eastman Road.

Attentive neighbors realized the approval was outside the letter of the planning board’s legal bounds, in what had been a routine procedure.

“I never paid this much attention to this particular section of the ordinance until now,” Planning Board Chairman Barbara Schenkel said. “Obviously we have somebody out there who is looking at everything.”

David Plimpton and Mary Esposito – who live less than a mile from the proposed development – sent a letter to the planning board nearly a week before an August 19 meeting outlining the town’s Review and Approval of Final Subdivision Plans ordinance, which prohibits the board from granting final approval until “written evidence of the issuance of all permits, licenses and approvals required for the subdivision from any federal, state or other local agency” has been received by the town. 

Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Environment Specialist Bob Green said an application for Site Location Approval for the Eastman Meadows project had been received and was currently under review by the department. Green said he expected storm water recommendations to be made last week.

“We’re just waiting for those revisions to be made,” he said. “It could take anywhere from three to six months, which is the time we are allowed. We’ll play it as it comes.”

According to the letter from Plimpton and Esposito, the pending DEP permit is enough to prevent the board from voting on final site plan approval. 

“We suggest that both the town planner and the planning board have the cart before the horse,” the letter reads.

Town Planner Maureen O’Meara said in the 18 years she had worked with the planning board it, had been “routine” to grant final approval to developers still going through DEP or other permitting processes.

“If, for some reason, the DEP permit requires changes to the plan it would have to go back before the board,” she said. “We haven’t had any problems in a long time.”

O’Meara said both the Spurwink Avenue and Highland subdivisions had been approved while DEP permits were still pending. Green said it was not uncommon for local municipalities to approve projects not yet finalized by the DEP.

Some municipalities add it as a conditional appliance to their final approval and others assume the plans will come back up for review should the DEP find an issue; either way it does not affect the schedule of the DEP’s review, he said. 

“I am troubled by the fact that we are simply ignoring a mandatory part of our ordinance,” Planning Board Member Elaine Falender said. “I was hoping within six months we could amend our ordinance.”

O’Meara said amending the Review and Approval of Final Subdivision Plans ordinance would most likely take much longer than six months since the planning board “had a lot on it’s plate,” but an “overhaul” of the ordinance had been listed as one of the priorities in the town’s comprehensive plan. 

“It’s something we’ll have to get to,” she said.

The board unanimously approved extending their preliminary approval of the Eastman Meadows site plan, including some new additions for work on a culvert and additional funding around the Mary Brock parcel, for another six months to overlap the pending DEP approval.

“I’m assuming you wouldn’t even anticipate doing anything until next spring anyway,” Schenkel said. “I think it’s prudent not to grant completion and grant an extension. Let’s start the clock ticking now.”

Now, developer Wyley Enterprises LLC, owned by Joel Fitzpatrick, must either wait for site location approval from the DEP and subsequently the planning board, or for the Review and Approval of Final Subdivision Plans ordinance to be amended before construction on the 40 acre Eastman Meadows condominium complex can begin.