LAMOINE, Maine — A Midcoast town is taking a stand against large-scale developments.
At a special town meeting in Lamoine held Tuesday, more than a third of the town's 1,300 registered voters supported a moratorium on large-scale developments.
During the meeting, nobody voted against the temporary ban on large-scale development. NEWS CENTER Maine has requested the official count.
With the resounding vote, residents are sending the message that they do not want hotels, motels, resorts, and “glampgrounds” in their rural community.
A glampground is a high-end camping resort, equipped with resort-style amenities.
In May, a not-for-profit advocacy group, Growing Lamoine Responsibly, gathered more than the required 105 signatures to put this issue in front of the town.
It comes as there is a proposed glampground of 90 dome-shaped lodging structures, to be fully equipped with amenities such as: running water, electricity, and air conditioning like those found in hotels. Restaurants, wedding rooms, spas, and pools are part of a development on a 240-acre piece of wetland property in the residential part of Lamoine.
The application for the development was made by an Arizona-based corporation, Clear Sky Resorts, which owns a similar glampground outside of Grand Canyon National Park in Williams, Arizona. It presented the proposal to create a similar resort called Clear Sky Acadia.
The moratorium was initially presented to the Select Town Planning Board through a citizens’ petition. The campaign to drum up signatures for the town to enact the moratorium and to revise its ordinance to prohibit or minimize, large-scale developments, was led by Amy Moler. Moler works with Growing Lamoine Responsibly.
“Our expectations are that the planning board is going to work to change the ordinances to protect Lamoine from this type of development. Then, we want citizens to be engaged with that process. Once the ordinance is changed, we want to look ideally at having that land being conserved, maybe having trails,” Moler stated.
Residents believe these large-scale developments, like the proposed Clear Sky Acadia, will drain town resources and will disrupt the integrity and charm of their community.
