Boothbay Harbor Waterfront Preservation is all about riding the line between protecting public access and a working waterfront. Having undergone many iterations – Friends of the Harbor, then Stewards of the Harbor and now BHWP – the nonprofit now has made a splash with its purchase and sale agreement for Cap’n Fish’s Motel.

Friends of the Harbor was established legally by Frank Helman last July and served as a community group concerned about sweeping changes to Atlantic Avenue. By August, the name changed to Stewards of the Harbor and then, in late January, to Boothbay Harbor Waterfront Preservation.

“We felt there might be some confusion between our community group and (BHWP). So, we came up with the name 'Stewards of the Harbor,' but none of us particularly liked it,” said Fitch. The group decided over winter on “Waterfront Preservation," since that really is the group's focus, he explained. “And it's no longer associated with Friends of the Harbor because (that) is just a community thing.”

BHWP signed a purchase and sale agreement with John Fish, owner of Cap'n Fish's, after a press release explained local developer Paul Coulombe was backing out of a previous sale. After it was clear there was nothing holding the property back from a sale, Fitch and Fish worked on an agreement for the next month which would include a Nov. 1 closing on the sale and one more season of operation.

“I want everyone to know we were not in the picture before that. We weren't behind the scenes. When I heard that press release, that next morning I called John Fish.”

Fitch said Friends, Stewards and Preservationists alike were frightened that the harbor lost an opportunity to provide meaningful public access and working space for local fishermen when Coulombe announced his purchase of the property with plans to build a new motel.

“We are not opposed to development in the town. We're not opposed to renovations. Basically, all we ever said is we have to be smart the way we do it … We have to be careful what we do because you could wake up one morning and find out this town doesn't look anything like it does now.”

BHWP is working with a landscape architect and trying to put together plans for a public park. The ideas are countless, Fitch said. Ideas such as a small supermarket, cafe and a splashpad for kids are all on the table and restaurant Cod’s Head will stay, he said. Clearer plans have the north pier as a public access point and the south pier as a hub for the working waterfront. Just by removing the buildings, greenspace will increase by about 55 percent, said Fitch.

“I see it over and over again: People walk to the end of the footbridge on the east side, they look left, they look right, and they turn around and go back. Or they're staying in hotels walking down Atlantic Avenue to get to the footbridge to go over to the West side. There's nothing really to attract them over there. I think a park will do it. I think a park will actually do it.”

While the purchase raises issues of lost tax dollars and 50 fewer rooms in the Boothbay region, Fitch said BHWP believes a park will enhance the region, and increase visitors to the harbor and to the east side specifically with a traffic pattern which might encourage commerce there.

“The number one attraction in the Midcoast is Boothbay Harbor. The number one attraction in that number one attraction? The harbor. People want to get down to the harbor, they want to put their feet in the water, they want to look at the harbor, they want to have a lobster roll by the harbor. They want to be down by the water.”