Ames True Value, 447 Bath Road, is closer to its planned expansion of its outdoor storage space. Monday night, the planning board passed the proposal, the board’s recording secretary Jackie Lowell confirmed post-meeting.

Fuss & O’Neill of Kennebunk described the updated plan in a recent letter to the town. The project would add 157,750 square feet of paved and gravel surfaces to store bulk items such as trailers, picnic tables and chairs, rental equipment and drainage pipe; the project will impact about 6,480 square feet of wetlands, will not increase the site’s use of public water and sewer, not add to air emissions or noise and will add no new parking, according to the letter. 

It notes the project’s design, which includes an underground stormwater detention system, is “sized to treat and detain stormwater based on future ... potential plans that may include paving the gravel storage area” and maybe a new storage building behind the store.

Ames has also sought permits from Maine Department of Environmental Protection “for the proposed new impervious areas and wetland impacts. These impacts have been minimized to the maximum extent practicable to achieve the applicant’s need for additional outdoor product areas along Bath Road ...,” the letter states.

Documents the firm submitted project MDEP approval by Oct. 1 and construction starting a month later and ending Dec. 31, 2024 depending on factors “outside (Ames’) control” such as when a contractor and materials are available. 

Also Monday, Lowell said the board set a 7 p.m. July 25 public hearing on Big Duck Cove, LLC’s proposed Montsweag Woods subdivision on Foye Road. Documents the town received propose 14 home lots on a total of 108.5 acres. Mark Cenci Geologic Inc.’s assessment dated June 1 stated the property is on the southerly shelf and slopes of “a northeasterly trending ridge east of Montsweag Brook and west of Ward Brook.” The North Yarmouth firm concluded the plan would meet town rules on wastewater disposal’s effect on groundwater.

And Lowell said the board got a pre-application presentation on the proposed Optimus senior living center at the former Wiscasset Primary School, 146 Gardiner Road. A June 29 letter from Trillium Engineering Group of Yarmouth to Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission County Planner Emily Rabbe states the building would be renovated and a three-story addition would connect to the rear of the former gym; the facility would have 113 beds and 20 employees; the curb cuts on Gardiner Road would be kept for a perimeter access road and deliveries; and vegetation would replace the parking area next to Gardiner Road, the letter states.