BREAKING NEWS: Tremont campground cuts sites to 55, eliminates RVs
TREMONT, July 22, 2021 - The owners of Acadia Wilderness Lodge have drastically altered their proposal for a luxury campground and reduced by 99 the number of camping sites. It also said it would not allow RVs, much to the delight of more than 40 residents who dialed into a “neighborhood” Zoom meeting Wednesday night. You my watch the entire meeting by clicking here.
The owners compared the initiative to the Terramor in Town Hill, a “glamping” resort with 64 luxury tents.
For the first time since the original application was filed in January, several residents praised the effort and said the new plan was acceptable.
“We are quite impressed with the new plan which you offer,” said Robert Cantwell of Clark Point Road. “You have turned a regressive plan into a progressive plan. If this plan is going to be realized in the way close to what you propose here, I’m supporting it.”
The proposal carves up the 43-acre lot into a luxury camping resort and a chunk of open space for later development. The back space of “retained land open space” drew several questions, including one from Elizabeth Salvi of the Goose Cove area who wanted to know if RVs would be contemplated in the future to which a company representative said, “There will never be RVs, trailers, trip campers or self-tenting sites in that open space.”
Cindy Orcutt, a landscape architect hired to be the chief spokesperson, added, “The only option that the owners have asked to retain would be sometime in the future to be able to develop that as a residential area in single-family lots.” She deferred several questions regarding water and septic systems and whether there will be blasting during construction.
“I’m relieved that they will not have RVs which was of intense interest to me and others,” said one abutting resident. “But I still don’t think this is light commercial use.”
The sturm and drang around the proposal has exposed the weak language in the town’s land use ordinance, specifically in the business/residential zone:
“The purpose of the Residential-Business Zone is to preserve the integrity of the residential uses while allowing for maritime related and light commercial activity which are compatible with the physical capability of the land.”
James and Kenya Hopkins successfully convinced the Planning Board in 2019 that a small campground was “light commercial” use and are building an 11-site campground on six acres inherited by James Hopkins on Kelleytown Road.
Then in January, the couple shocked the town with its 154-site, 72-RV proposal for land on Tremont Road, near Kelleytown Road where there are many abutting neighbors. That led to an opposing petition signed by more than 1,000 persons, some of whom hired lawyers.
Orcutt said the plan now is to present the revisions to the Planning Board on Aug. 10. But some residents wondered if the owners will have to file an entirely new application. “it certainly is nothing like the original plan.”