Alna planning board
Board addresses claim of potential conflict
Alna’s planning board July 18 kept Vice Chair Cathy Johnson participating in its review of Chair Jim Amaral’s earthmoving request after Johnson countered resident Jeff Spinney’s claim of a potential conflict of interest.
Nor did the board go along with resident Mike Trask’s request for a public hearing on Amaral’s proposal. The proposal has been on multiple agendas and “it’s a little late in the game” to ask for a hearing, Johnson said. Member Peter Tischbein concurred, and he and fellow members supported Johnson’s chairing the review of Amaral’s proposal, as she has been. Amaral again stepped away from the table due to being the applicant. He has proposed foundation and drainage work and erosion control on a sloped bank adjacent to a house at 707 West Alna Road.
Spinney told the board he was not expecting it to address his points about Johnson that night. Spinney noted he already raised the issue to the planning and selectboards. His June 29 email to members of both panels included a June 28 court document in which the town lists Johnson among parties prevailing in a 2021 appeal to the town appeals board over Spinney’s boat ramp project. Spinney and the town have ongoing court matters over the project, and the court had ordered the town to provide those names.
Spinney’s June 29 email also notes both his and Amaral’s project involve earthmoving in the shoreland zone; the email argues Johnson should not be reviewing a shoreland proposal similar to the one now in court.
Johnson said in the July 18 meeting at the town office and carried over Zoom, she has received no court notice naming her a litigant in the Spinney shoreland matter. And she said she has no financial or other stake in Amaral’s proposal, only the public’s interest.
The board approved Amaral’s proposal and required Amaral to have needed permits before moving earth. Amaral said he would need state permission because the spot is next to a wetland.
Also July 18, the board kept drafting solar and mining ordinances. July 27, selectmen are set to consider 180-day extensions on the moratoriums on “installation, operation, permitting and approval of any new mineral extraction facilities and operations, or the expansion of existing, actual, and substantial mineral extraction facilities ... and ... on the siting, installation, operation, permitting and approval of any commercial or community solar facility,” according to the agenda released July 21. That meeting is at 6 p.m. at the town office and at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82663533260
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