By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

The proposal for the 87-acre Olde Port Village subdivision between North and School streets was back on the Kennebunkport Planning Board’s agenda Sept. 17 following the Aug. 27 request by Developer Tom Macone of CDMK, LLC Properties to table further discussion of his application until he could reassess plans for the property.  

Previously, the planning board deemed the proposed clubhouse plans did not meet the land use ordinance. In the ordinance, a clubhouse is defined as “any voluntary association of persons organized for fraternal, social, religious benevolent, recreational, literary, patriotic, scientific, or political purposes whose facilities are open to members but not the general public, and which is principally engaged in activities which are not customarily carried on for pecuniary gain.”

Planning Board Chairman David Kling said the planning board agreed to seek counsel from Drummond Woodsum Attorney Amy Tchao in regard to the interpretation of the town’s land use ordinance. At Wednesday’s meeting, he said a letter sent to the board from Tchao states the clubhouse does not meet the definition in the land use ordinance, but recommends the application for the clubhouse be considered part of the site plan review as an amenity to the subdivision, not separately as a conditional use.

Planning board members John Hathaway and Gordon Ayer both expressed concern about discussing the clubhouse without Tchao present, as they had agreed on when they voted to seek counsel.

“I’m questioning the path we are taking and why we are going to town counsel at this step. It is tainting the integrity of the board and what we are. We made a decision on what we feel is right to do,” Hathaway said. 

Macone said the planning board told him to file a separate application for the structures involving the clubhouse, in the separate application he decided to label the building as a clubhouse, and said it is an integral part of the plan because without the clubhouse he said the subdivision becomes a basic family residential area.

“We’ve reduced it to 4,000 square feet. It is not going to be a burden, not going to be seen from the road and it will be used solely by the members of the condominium association,” Macone said. “Hopefully we can get on track, agree and move forward with this.”

Macone asked for the board’s input on what they would like to see in a revised application, but Ayer said he needs to present his own revisions to the board first. 

Kling said the board would be willing to discuss the plan with legal counsel present, then go through the proposal for the clubhouse piece by piece to decide what is feasible to be labeled as an amenity to the subdivision. 

Plans for changes at the Resort at Goose Rocks and Hidden Ponds were recently on the board’s agenda, and both resorts include similar clubhouses to the one proposed by Macone. When asked what the difference was between clubhouses at each established facility and the proposal for Olde Port Village, Code Enforcement Officer Brian Shaw declined to comment. 

Kling said the difference might be in the scale of the clubhouse or that  recreational things included at the Resort at Goose Rocks and Hidden Ponds are incidental to motel use as opposed to residential use, but could not recall previous discussions in regard to those establishment to make a “concrete” comparison.