Clark's Point Subdivision residents could be closer to getting more neighbors. Design consultant Karl Olson of Karl Olson & Associates in Wiscasset represented Titan Funding Feb. 9 in a pre-application talk with the planning board. The agenda said it would be a discussion of 50 homes. But Olson explained to the board, he got word that morning, the first request will involve six lots at most.

"They still want to do all 50 lots, but the immediate application that I'll be preparing is for five to six lots, because they want to get building permits issued as fast as possible and, by dropping out the others for now, it doesn't lessen the process with the planning board, but it lessens my work dramatically," and the work of "my team of experts that I've put together, (so that) we're not ranging over the entire 220-odd acres," he told the board.

"We're concentrating in one area (Pear Hollow) so we can get that (information) done in a shorter time. If I had to do all 50 lots at this time, we probably wouldn't be back until midsummer, 'cause of the time it takes. And they want to get some building permits ASAP."

Olson noted this is a continuation of a subdivision that has had many phases. "We're hoping as in the past that all of the environmental and other work that's already been on file will be accepted, and we're not having to repeat any of that material … We will be asking for (that) environmental and other data to be accepted without having to be redocumented … It'll just be what can be built with the existing infrastructure in place," he said.

The board made no commitment on what it will accept.

According to Wiscasset Newspaper files, Maine Department of Environmental Protection approved 90-plus lots two decades ago; the town nodded some of the lots, and others later; the project has had a series of developers and a shift to homeowners owning their lots; and the subdivision endured an economic downturn and the state's consideration of putting a bypass there. 

Olson chairs the board, but stepped down for the agenda item, to represent his client. Vice Chair Allen Cohen was not there, so member Debra Pooler led the meeting.

Pooler counted seven members of the public in the room for that agenda item. "This is the most I’ve seen come out on an issue for a while so I would advise that we pay attention and help them. It looks like they're all neighbors that are trying to work together, and I think we respect that as a committee, and speak to some of their issues, and their concerns."

They are all neighbors, one of them, Andy Wigton, told the board. "We’re really excited that this thing is gonna get going again. We’ve lived through ... frustration as different developers have come in and disappeared ... " He asked if the open space could be made "somehow contiguous, so that you never have to drive and park in front of somebody's house, and go, walk around behind somebody's house and then drive (again) …" He also asked that documents make clear what is to be kept as open space and what is not. 

Olson recalled wanting that years ago as a planning board member, before he became involved in the project. And he thought the planning board should have forced the issue. "The most contiguous open space ... is where the power line cuts through, up by the maintenance area ... Obviously there'll be little to nothing done in the well head protection zones. There can't be anything done in the wooded buffer that's essentially all the land except the road and the dock at the shore and 250 feet back. It's actually more than 250, but not much more ..."

He added, "The idea (now) is to get all of that properly mapped in, reconfirm the boundaries (and) confirm the areas never to be developed."

Wigton urged that the neighbors be kept informed. "I think we've been pretty patient … We want to see it get developed ... So this (information) is fantastic, and anything that you could do to communicate with us what's going on, we would really appreciate that."

One neighbor, Tom Kovarik, said one of the would-be lots looked smaller than those near it on River Point Road and the value of property in that area relates to the location and surroundings, including the lots there being an acre-plus.

Pooler asked Olson for any response to that concern. "All I can say is it's a preliminary design and I'm listening ... preliminary, all caps, bold and underlined," he added. 

In a separate matter Feb. 9, the board nodded David Pratt and Lee Stewart's request to amend the subdivision by dividing lot 17 on Ice Pond Loop equally between lots 23 and 9. Pratt's wife Kathleen explained, her husband and Stewart have bought lot 17. "It's a very small lot between our two houses." Splitting it will add to their other lots' space and be cleaner for taxes, she said. 

"That makes more sense, to do that," Pooler said. Neighbors voiced support.