ROCKLAND, Maine — While a group of Port Clyde residents are concerned about plans by Linda Bean to build a center dedicated to the Wyeth family on their street, a Knox County justice has found no legal reason why the plans should be sent back to the St. George Planning Board.
The five residents, who call themselves the Horse Point Road Group, filed the appeal earlier this year after the St. George Planning Board approved Bean’s plans, and the town’s board of appeals denied six appeals relating to the project. Last week, Superior Court Justice Bruce Mallonee denied the group’s appeal.
Bean’s project, called the Wyeth Reading Room, is being developed on Horse Point Road, a short, narrow and mostly residential road in Port Clyde. The appointment-only reading room will focus on the work of the Wyeth family — three generations of artists with strong ties to Maine, especially the St. George and Knox County areas. At the end of Horse Point Road is a property called Eight Bells, which was owned by N.C. Wyeth.
Neighbors have raised concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety since the project was proposed in early 2017. But in his Dec. 11 ruling, filed in Knox County Superior Court, Mallonee found no reason to send the plans back to the St. George Planning Board.
“The court is not charged with evaluating the esthetic value of the proposed Wyeth Reading Room, the degree of which it might degrade the ambience of the neighborhood, or the overall wisdom of placing it on the proposed site,” Mallonee wrote. “Plaintiffs’ argument elegantly reprises the points they presented to the board, but provides no legal basis for vacating the board’s decision.”
Construction has begun on the one and a half story, 1,143-square-foot building, according to Paul Gibbons, a Camden-based attorney representing Bean. In an email, Gibbons said Bean “is pleased with the decision of the Superior Court.”
According to Mallonee’s decision, the project originally was presented as the “Wyeth Orientation Center,” which was open to the public. But as discussion of the project went on, it morphed into the reading room, which is open to the public but by appointment only. The facility will have five parking spaces and a sixth for motorists to turn around in if they mistakenly pull into the parking lot, according to Gibbons.
The Horse Point Road Group fears that the facility would attract traffic that would “prove both dangerous and disruptive to their rural neighborhood,” according to the decision. But Gibbons said the facility will have a minimal impact on traffic or the safety of the neighborhood.
Patrick Mellor, an attorney representing the Horse Point Road Group, did not immediately respond to an email Monday morning.
Bean, a businesswoman, is an heir to the L.L. Bean family fortune. She owns several businesses and properties in Port Clyde, including the Port Clyde General Store and the Seaside Inn.