Boothbay Harbor Waterfront Preservation got approval to officially break ground on its long anticipated Atlantic Avenue east side waterfront park Oct. 14. BHWP President Bob McKay and MRLD Landscape Architecture + Urbanism’s Mitchell Rasor presented the board with Maine Departments of Transportation and Environmental Protection permits, the last items needed to complete the application to the town.

After issues with state permits, property lines between BHWP and the town, and parking and lighting that have been resolved, the board passed the application on a condition that a note be included which states the site plan has fulfilled all view corridor requirements. Member Bill Hamblen said the note would document that view corridor requirements are receiving follow-up.

The approval drew a round of applause.

The board also approved Topside Inn owner Mark Osborne's application to replace and enlarge a nonconforming garage on his 24 Greenleaf Lane property. Osborne said he is replacing it because it is falling apart and was built years ago to fit vehicles of the era's typical size.

“Right now, you can't even open the doors and get in the car ... so we just want to build a larger garage on our property.”

Alternate Jon Dunsford said his only concern was a larger area roof will mean much more rainwater runoff; a condition was added that Osborne have his contractor draw a plan mitigating runoff, and for that plan to go to Code Enforcement Officer Geoff Smith for approval.

The board passed Mark and Kimberly Grimmel's application to move and expand their nonconforming structure at 20 Factory Cove in the shoreland zone. Knickerbocker Group's Brent James explained the building is within a nonconforming structure's buildable envelope, and the plans move the structure as far from the high water mark and as close to the road as practicable.

James said the plans increase the building's three bedrooms to four plus a fifth bedroom above the garage. The existing height is about 16-17 feet on one side of the building due to a view easement and 28 feet on the building’s other side. James said the new plans bring the lower side of the building up beyond 19 feet to keep as close to the 20-foot view easement as possible.

“We're giving up some area to gain some volume. The existing house is pretty short and squat, the roof pitch is very low, so we're trying to make it a little bit more substantial within … the view easement … It's a tough site. We looked at many different iterations and this seemed to be the happy medium.”

The application passed 4-1 with vice-chair Chris Swanson dissenting. Swanson expressed interest in a site visit to make sure the structure will be brought as far from the high water line as possible. “My reason is that I'm not convinced this moves out of the shoreland zone at the greatest practicable extent.”