A Reconsideration of the Appeals Board decision regarding Nathan Wadsworth’s (Nate Sells Real Estate LLC) Watson Woods Subdivision approval is being held on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. at the Parsonsfield Town Hall with a snow date of February 25 at 5:00 p.m. Please consider attending.
Mr. Wadsworth first filed the preliminary plan for this subdivision back in March of 2017 but, after all of these years, this proposal, which was approved by the Planning Board in November, has still not met the requirements of the Town.
“It takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
After the Appeals Board’s first decision made on January 14, a complaint was made by a citizen to the Selectboard at their meeting on January 21 regarding the Appeals Board’s conduct at their prior meeting. This included the clear perceived bias of an Appeals Board Member, despite guidelines in place to protect citizens.
Also, at the Jan 21 Selectmen’s Meeting, there was a discussion regarding the lack of Parsonsfield issuing town driveway permits for this Subdivision approval. In Parsonsfield, driveways must meet the requirements set forth in Article II, Section 6, N 4 g of their Land Use Ordinance. These standards are also clear in their Subdivision Regulations but have not been met.
According to the Selectboard, at the same meeting, the Road Commissioner failed to issue the required permits for this subdivision proposal because “we never told him.” The Selectboard also stated that the Road Commissioner “didn’t want anything to do with any of it” and “it’s his job but nobody told him to do his job for starters” when discussing why he failed to fulfill his duties as road commissioner.
The Planning Board has been aware of these and other requirements since May of 2017 and despite repeated requests by citizens since then, the Board has approved this subdivision without requiring Mr. Wadsworth to meet these important standards. For these reasons alone, the Appeals Board is required to remand the approval of the Watson Woods Subdivision back to the Planning Board.
You can find a lot more information in the filed appeal and minutes from the January 14 meeting along with the filed Reconsideration for the meeting on February 18 under Watson Woods at http://www.parsonsfield.org/zoning-board-of-appeals.html.
Sincerely,
Gerard Clifford
Abutter, Parsonsfield
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