By Cliff White
Staff Writer
Saint Joseph’s College has been granted preliminary approval for its proposal to build five dormitories, three parking lots and a science laboratory on the Standish campus despite objections from local residents, who argued the development will create a range of disruptive problems harmful to the rural residential nature of the area.
Those residents have filed two separate lawsuits against the town of Standish, offering legal challenges to the actions the Standish Zoning Board of Appeals took in passing the project on to the planning board. Both suits are still in litigation.
Monday nights’ final vote for preliminary approval was 4-1, with Bill Foster voting against approval, though the site plan had passed every individual standard required by the planning board – all but one unanimously.
Monty Vogel, a resident of the neighboring Hearthside development, and about 15 other residents walked out of the planning board meeting in protest before the final vote was taken.
“My biggest disappointment is that of our most major concerns about the project – noise pollution, light pollution, soil pollution and traffic – none were addressed significantly by the planning board,” Vogel said. “It felt like from the beginning of the hearings, there was nothing anybody could say or do that would change the direction of the outcome of either the appeals board meeting or the planning board meetings.”
The meeting was a continuation of an Oct. 22 gathering in which the planning board was unable to review all required standards due to insufficient time. The most significant issue remaining to be discussed at Monday’s meeting was the town’s controversial noise standards.
Residents argued the addition of five dorms at the north end of campus, intended to house more than 300 students, would greatly increase noise levels in what is now a quiet residential community. A peer reviewer, Steve Ambrose, told the planning board he agreed with the college-hired assessor that sound levels emitted by the college would be below town and state requirements. He added that judging what can be deemed a nuisance is subjective and difficult to define using data alone.
“All the information presented and what I was able to extract shows that the facility does comply with the Maine D.E.P. and the town of Standish,” Ambrose said.
Ambrose said noise limits would also be difficult to enforce due to outdated town standards.
“My recommendations for the proposed residence halls is that since there’s nothing that’s really enforceable, is to encourage the college to be a good acoustic neighbor, and for the town and the college to mutually agree to noise level limits,” Ambrose said.
Vogel said he was worried about short bursts of loud noise which may not have been accurately taken into account by either the college’s sound expert or the peer reviewer.
“It’s the non-routine noises in a quiet setting we’re concerned with,” Vogel said. “It’s abrupt noises – yelling, loud music, car horns – that annoy and don’t show up on decibel readings which really worries me. Average noise doesn’t bother us, it’s the abrupt sounds that do.”
Garrett Van Atta of Hearthside said the noise from Saint Joseph’s is already a problem and would become worse with dorms built at the campus’ closest point to his – and many of his neighbors’ – homes.
“Sound from the campus already is audible almost every single night, and on Friday and Saturday nights, it’s a lot louder” he said. “The new dorms would only add to that, and would change the nature of a very quiet, rural neighborhood.”
Planning Board Chairman Carol Billington said she understood the residents’ concerns but it was not in her jurisdiction to oppose the plan based on sound levels which may be a nuisance but which are legally acceptable.
“Noise isn’t one of the stated standards that we have to take under consideration, except under one standard on whether it is in keeping with the neighborhood. The issue of noise was addressed fully and completely at the meeting of the zoning board of appeals, and they basically said that the college fits under the requirements. So what can I say? We have to operate within the law,” Billington said.
Lou Wood, Jr. a resident of Westerlea Way – along which the college is building a cul-de-sac to provide car access to the dorms, expressed frustration at the town’s system of review for developments. Wood is a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits directed against the town.
“The process we have here drives us to the law of courts, and will continue to do that,” Wood said. “You’re going to approve this thing, and we’re going to take it to court. I just think that if the process was different – if there was a type of workshop before these hearings began – that it would help to better address the concerns of the residents.”
After the board voted to grant preliminary approval to the plan, it requested the college submit a complete package of all materials required for final approval, which will be decided at the board’s meeting at 7 p.m. on Nov. 19. The list included a complete set of final plans, the Portland Water District’s review of the college’s planned water main and a review of the college’s insurance coverage. The delay would also allow the Town Manager Bud Benson to review the DEP approval, which had been granted just prior to Monday’s meeting, Benson said.
After the meeting, Phil Yough, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Saint Joseph’s College, said the college was excited to have preliminary approval but would not rest easily until final approval had been granted.
“I think this process has proven the college has a fundamentally acceptable and decent plan,” Yough said. “I understand the public concern and there are places we have found compromise, such as in the cul-de-sac, which was changed upon neighbors’ wishes. The process was thorough and I think the opinions of all interested parties were taken into consideration.”
Hearthside resident Joe Sampson said he had no grudge against the college, but said this process had made him believe there should be a cap put on future expansion by Saint Joseph’s.
“For years they promised their neighbors that they were going to remain a small college and they were not going to expand,” Sampson said. “Clearly, as they have bought property surrounding their campus and engaged in developmental project like this one, they have proven that their word is not good. We now have a well-organized group of people who oppose future development by the college, and we will continue to fight to preserve the rural residential quality of our community.”
Sampson said he disagreed with Billington’s assessment of what the planning board’s role was in handling the site plan review.
“The planning board’s job isn’t just to craft an acceptance,” Sampson said. “In reality, there has to be someone looking out for the residents of Sstandish. This is one of the major expansion projects in the history of the town, and throughout the process, the concerns of the town’s residents were largely ignored.”