RAYMOND – The Raymond Board of Selectmen has removed an $817,000 bond issue from the annual town meeting warrant, effectively scrapping a proposed 19-acre recreation complex that could have been built by the military.

The proposed Farwell Drive Recreational Complex, which would have been built on 83 acres of town land abutting Egypt Road, was slated to contain six to seven athletic fields, tennis courts, a basketball court, a dog park and nature trails. Supporters had enthusiastically touted the plan since it would have significantly increased the town’s recreational offerings.

Town officials had hoped to clear about 20 acres of forest in order to make room for the complex, and had applied for substantial labor assistance through the Pentagon’s Innovative Readiness Training program. A local bond priced at $817,000 was set to go before the town’s voters on June 3.

On April 18, Raymond’s Code Enforcement Administrative Assistant Danielle Loring and Gary Fullerton, a soil scientist from the engineering firm Sebago Technics, conducted a vernal pool and wetland mapping study on the 83-acre property, which the town purchased from Trudy Files in 2003.

They found an abundance of wetlands, vernal pools, frog eggs, salamanders, tadpoles and beaver dams. According to Loring, the wetlands stretched well into the proposed development area. A pond was located on the site of a proposed tennis court, she said.

Vernal pools appear in the springtime and usually dry up by summer. Though temporary, they are considered important breeding habitat for amphibians and insects.

On May 6, after Fullerton conducted two more studies, Owens McCullough, Sebago Technics’ vice president of engineering and business development, sent Loring an email recommending that the town scrap the recreational complex. Developing the property would likely violate state and federal natural resource protection regulations, he wrote.

“Unfortunately, the Egypt Road site contains numerous productive vernal pools, wetland complexes, a beaver pond and streams, all of which are considered protected natural resources,” McCullough wrote. “The cumulative results of the wetlands and vernal pools will not allow for any appreciable redevelopment of the property including the proposed recreational field complex.”

McCullough recommended that the town use the site instead for “low impact” walking and hiking trails.

At the May 13 Board of Selectmen meeting, the three selectmen in attendance voted unanimously to remove Article 45, which contains the Farwell complex bond, from the June 3 town meeting warrant. All of the selectmen, with the exception of Joe Bruno, had recommended placing the bond, which was expected to be controversial, on the warrant.

Seven acres of the property were once used as a landfill, which was shut down by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in 1980. Selectman Mike Reynolds said the property seemed to be recovering from its former use.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” Reynolds said. “I’m very disappointed that we can’t build ball fields there and take advantage of the program, but I think one of the positives here is a lot of those vernal pools are the result of the fact that we’ve had a dump there. There are lots of old tire tracks from the heavy equipment that was in there from when they closed the dump and they did what they did, and nature has taken back the land. A lot of those vernal pools are divots from tire tractors.”

“Those holes have become a new ecosystem,” Reynolds added.

According to Town Manager Don Willard, Fullerton’s inspections were the first scientific studies of the property in recent years. Willard said he was taken aback by the vitality of the ecosystem there.

“It’s surprising the degree and kind of wetlands that are there, the level of wetlands,” Willard said. “There are a number of different wetlands, and they are more prolific than what we had anticipated.”

According to McCullough, soil scientists can only conduct vernal pool and wetlands studies during the springtime amphibian breeding season. Willard said that the town did not have time to wait for the studies’ completion before submitting the military application, which was due in December, and placing the bond issue on the warrant.

Loring said she was surprised by the volume of wetlands and wildlife on the property, as well. Loring said she took photos for the town’s military application from the roadway.

“I was expecting it to be a lot drier,” Loring said. “There are a lot of what I consider nutrient-poor soils there. A lot of the plants don’t look like wet plants.”

Pending Pentagon approval, the town of Raymond is still set to collaborate with the military on three other public works projects, beginning in 2015.

The military would dredge fire ponds near Oakledge Hills Road, selectively clear vegetation near the intersection of Main Street and Route 302, and erect a 100-foot, self-supporting communications tower on Valley Road for the town’s public safety and public works departments. The town’s proposed budget would fund the three proposed projects with approximately $150,000 in surplus, Loring said.

The Farwell project would have been the town’s first comprehensive municipal recreation complex. There are baseball fields at Raymond Elementary School, Jordan Small Middle School and the Sheri Gagnon Park on Mill Street. But the school fields do not have concession stands or dugouts, and the Mill Street field suffers from drainage problems.

Willard said the town may look at developing a recreational complex elsewhere, although that could prove a difficult enterprise.

“There have been some discussions about that, but at least from a staff level we haven’t put forward any plans on any other sites,” Willard said. “There is a potential for that.”

Willard said he was disappointed that the complex proposal had been scrapped.

“It’s a prolific area when it comes to wetlands,” he said. “So that’s good news for the frogs the salamanders (and other) wildlife that would depend on such wetlands. But it’s not good news for the town in building a recreational site.”

“I think it’s a significant lost opportunity,” he added.

Raymond officials have found an abundance of wetlands, vernal pools, frog eggs, salamanders, tadpoles and beaver dams on and around the location of a proposed recreation complex off Egypt Road.