ELLSWORTH, Maine — While the Ellsworth Planning Board may have speedily green-lighted a new apartment development on Beckwith Court on Wednesday night, condo-owning neighbors are still worried the development will create danger and harm their way of life.
Senergy LLC won final approval to build two four-unit apartment buildings on Beckwith Court, across from 10 condos built by the same developer in the late ’80s. Now, the owners of those condos worry that, without written agreements with Senergy about property maintenance, they won’t have peace of mind.
Senergy has agreed to maintain Beckwith Court, the private access road from U.S. Route 1, and to take care of the parking lot used by the condo owners. Tenants of the new development will also use Beckwith Court to get to and from their apartments.
Chris Stanley is president of the Beckwith Woods Community Association, which represents the condo owners. He said Small had been responsive to many of the association’s concerns about development design and construction staging, but said the verbal maintenance agreement isn’t enough.
“[Small] says he’s going to take care of it, but what does that mean?” Stanley asked during the planning board meeting.
Stanley is worried the condo owners will have no say in the maintenance schedule and will be trapped by the whim of an uninvested groundskeeper.
“We can’t get them to commit in writing,” he said after the meeting. “But I guess it’s good we have them here tonight on the record.”
Steve Salsbury, who represented Senergy LLC before the planning board, said Small will be responsive to the needs of the property.
“Anybody who knows apartment buildings knows tenants will be the first to call when something’s not right,” he said.
Both sides said they’ll continue attempts to hash out a written agreement, but even if an accord is reached, not all condo-owning residents will be happy with their new neighbors.
“It’s just gonna be so tight, so crowded,” said Marcia Oinonen. “It’s all trees in there now, and quiet. Now the trees will be gone and instead of nature we’ll be looking at tenants.”
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
That’s Mitchell Small, Mario, & trust me…he could care less about the condo owners. All he thinks about is money. He’s nothing but a little twerp. His old man gave Mitchell everything he owns. POS
“Anybody who knows apartment buildings knows tenants will be the first to call when something’s not right,” he said.
Yeah…and anyone who knows a slumlord knows that tenants can call all they want and nothing gets done…Get it in writing or you’ll def. get screwed.
Condos in Beckwith that are for sale and still for sale for years now….what makes you think they will be able to sell new ones…
Did you read the article? The new ones will be apartments not condos.
As for condo owners being able to see tenants….you live in glorified apartments already with neighbors all around you, don’t like it? Buy a house next time and keep your privacy.
I don’t reside there, I own an actual house in a very nice area of Ellsworth. Yes condos are glorified apartments already we know that, rumor has it they will be built as section 8’s…I’m sure the condo owners are pleased about that…..I’d vacate soon as possible if I lived there…typically 8’s are what you put in them, landlords are just concerned with the cash flow…..trust me I know, I have neighbors that “rent” a house for 1k a month, and there is activity going on there that I have been watching and REPORTING TO THE AUTHORITIES AS WELL. Wont be long before I have them relocating trust me….
well kudos to you for reporting the behavior , however it would probably do you well to keep it out of the newspaper?
First-world problems…