A sort of protracted chess match continued to play out on Davis Island last week, as the Edgecomb Planning Board waited for the parties in an unusual real estate situation to make their next moves.

The Planning Board agreed at a special meeting May 29 that the sale of three parcels at the Sheepscot Harbor Village and Resort auction in early May violated subdivision ordinance.

At their regular meeting June 7, the board said they will wait for the parties involved before taking action in the matter.

In February 2010, the Savings Bank of Maine and organizations that owned the foreclosed resort properties on Davis Island conveyed the properties to a single corporation called SBM Property A Inc., an entity of the Bank of Maine, according to town officials. Planning Board Chairman Jack French said this action merged the three properties at issue together.

At the auction, parts of the new, larger property were sold individually. This created a subdivision that the Planning Board had not approved, French said. The town questioned three parcels sold at the auction: a commercial lot; a five-plus-acre parcel with a pond; and a 16-acre parcel on the east side of Eddy Road. Other properties sold at the auction closed without issue.

Closings on the properties at issue have been held until the matter can be resolved. The Planning Board's future involvement will depend on what the seller does, Planning Board Chairman Jack French said June 7.

French said the parties have the option to seek subdivision approval or sell the property undivided.

"We don't know what's going to happen next," French told fellow board members. Attorney John Cunningham advised against the board doing anything at this time, French said on June 7.

No one representing the bank or the three prospective buyers was at the June 7 meeting.

Harold Warren won the bid for the 16-acre parcel. When asked at the May 29 meeting if he would wait, he said yes. "It's not a big deal," Warren said of the delay.

Reached June 10 by phone, prospective buyer Tony Casella said he is still interested and would even be willing to buy the entire property himself, then seek subdivision approval and sell the other two interested parties the parcels they wanted.

Even if the other parties change their minds about their parcels, "I'm not worried about it. I'd just develop the whole thing," Casella said. "I could do something with it if I get stuck with it."