PROSPECT, Maine — Residents of this Waldo County town soon will have the chance to decide whether they want a six-month moratorium on industrial and large-scale commercial development.
The break would give the town’s planning board the chance to finish a site plan review ordinance the panel started working on in November, Prospect Selectman Bill Sneed said recently.
But if voters are in favor of the moratorium, it is likely to affect the timeline of a local businessman’s plan to build a multi-million dollar heat-treated wood chip operation in a former gravel pit off Route 1A.
Arthur House, a Belfast construction developer, told Prospect residents and officials in late December he hoped to start work on design and engineering of the wood-chipping and heat-sanitizing facility by March 1. He said at the time the company would employ 150 people locally by 2016.
House recently wrote a letter to Prospect residents, asking them to think twice about establishing the moratorium.
“I am concerned that the very broad language in the proposed ordinance will prohibit many activities that currently take place in town,” House wrote. “Although I want to build my business in Prospect and create local jobs and tax revenue, a moratorium could force me to bring the business elsewhere. If you want to see a low-impact business come to Prospect that will bring new jobs and new businesses for local loggers, I ask you to vote against the proposed moratorium ordinance.”
House also gave an altered timeline for his plan, writing he anticipates having the designs drawn by late March or early April and presented to the federal and state agencies that need to approve them by the summer. He said that at first, he would use a mobile chipper to debark and chip logs that are delivered to the former Lane gravel pit. As the project grows in scope, he expects to create 40 to 50 full-time jobs in Prospect by 2017, he wrote in the letter — a 75 percent workforce reduction from his earlier estimate.
Sneed said the planning board started the site plan review a month before House began to spread the word about his proposed wood chip operation.
“No one on the planning board knew anything about House’s plans,” Sneed said.
Right now, Prospect has no planning or zoning ordinances that provide for a municipal review of industrial and large-scale commercial developments. According to the draft moratorium ordinance, such developments could “pose significant impacts on the health, safety and welfare of Prospect residents. It is of utmost importance that the town has adequate standards in place to process applications for review and [oversight of] such facilities. Without sufficient local regulations … there exists the potential for serious public harm, including but not limited to visual impact, noise, environmental degradation and health.”
The residents can vote on the matter at a special town meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at the town firehouse.