A vocal opponent of some of the state’s downtown plans has stepped down from the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission. Jib Fowles confirmed in an email response to the Wiscasset Newspaper on Friday, he resigned last month. He declined further comment on his departure as one of the panel’s original members.

Fowles tells the commission’s chairman John Reinhardt in an email Sept. 18, “I have begun teaching at a senior college, and that is taking up all my volunteering time. I wish you luck,” Fowles writes. Town Planner Ben Averill provided the email at the Wiscasset Newspaper’s request.

Reinhardt said in a phone interview Saturday, Fowles did a good job as a commission member. “He certainly helped the commission to grow,” Reinhardt added. “I was pleased with him being there, and will certainly miss him.”

Responding to a request for comment Friday, Averill wrote in an email: “Jib brought a wealth of knowledge to the Commission and he will be missed immensely.”

Fowles has said removing parking on Main Street between Middle and Water streets would remove economic viability downtown. The change was part of the concept residents picked in a June straw vote.

On Sept. 1, Fowles proposed the commission oppose those spaces’ removal, “in the conviction that such a loss will prove to be a great hardship to the small businesses ... and thus harmful to our historic and beautiful downtown, where a viable commercial center has existed for nearly 300 years.” The motion drew some supportive comments from the commission for the points Fowles raised, but no one said they would vote for it and Averill said due to the town’s position on the downtown project, it was not a valid motion. No one objected when Fowles asked to table it. His resignation followed two and a half weeks later, making the September meeting his last.

Selectmen on Oct. 18 were scheduled to appoint Celeste Edwards to the commission. Edwards said Saturday, she bought the centuries-old, Fort Hill Street home known as the “Pumpkin house” last spring and just moved in on Friday. She’s working hard to bring back a lot of the home’s original features, she said.

Edwards has a master’s degree in interior design and about 25 years’ experience restoring older homes. Everyone she has met in Wiscasset has been nice. “The whole community is so perfect,” she said.

The former Newburyport, Massachusetts resident said she thought serving on the commission would be a way to  “dive in with both feet” into the community to meet people and bring her design and restoration experience to the panel.

“I hope to offer a helping hand and help the commission keep growing and progressing.”

The commission enters year two when it meets at 5 p.m. Nov. 3 at the municipal building. It first met Nov. 5, 2015, months after voters created it as part of a historic preservation ordinance.