L.L. Bean is withdrawing its support for a developer’s plan to build hundreds of homes on a 250-acre property it owns in Freeport, Portland Press Herald reported.
The plan KV Enterprises submitted to the Freeport Planning Board called for 329 single-family houses, 60 apartment units, 140 homes in 70 duplex buildings and eight commercial lots to be built over a period of up to 20 years off Desert and Old County Road, according to the Portland Press Herald.
However, Freeport residents opposed the project. Residents earlier this month raised concerns that the influx of people living in town — as many as 2,000 — would overwhelm municipal services and change the character of the community, the Portland Press Herald reported.
“The process and plan for a joint project with the Town of Freeport and a local developer veered from our original good intentions,” L.L. Bean CEO Stephen Smith said in a letter to the community. “As such, we feel that the best decision is to hold on this project until there is a clear and comprehensive plan agreed upon by the town and local residents regarding the best use of land in Freeport.”
L.L. Bean said it still wants to sell the land at some point in the future, according to the letter.