Nearly three years after the town of Frye Island proposed a park-and-ride facility on Raymond Cape, the Raymond Planning Board has approved the island town’s revised application.

On Feb. 11, the board voted 5-1 to approve the project, with Bruce Sanford opposed.

Planning Board member Greg Foster said the approval, which was delayed for years by the board’s deliberation, as well as local opposition, was overdue.

“It was a long time coming,” Foster said. “I would like to think that we wouldn’t as a Planning Board drag other applicants out like we did this one.”

In mid-2012, Frye Island submitted an initial application to the Planning Board to build a 43-car parking lot and ring road on a 25-acre lot of undeveloped land across from Ferry Landing Road.

Opposition quickly emerged from a citizens’ group called the Friends of Raymond Cape. In March 2013, the group filed a lawsuit demanding that the Raymond Board of Selectmen call for a moratorium on all applications for major site plan review within the town’s shoreland rural and recreational zones for at least 180 days.

After the Maine Superior Court dismissed the request for a moratorium, the group appealed the decision. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s final court of appeal, dismissed the case, but also rejected a joint motion from the towns of Raymond and Frye Island that the advocacy group, having filed a “frivolous” appeal, provide the towns with funds for legal fees and other costs.

Then, in March 2014, the board denied the application on the grounds that the proposed four-way intersection with Cape Road and Ferry Landing Road was unsafe and that the proposed parking lot was too small.

On July 18, Frye Island submitted a substantially modified application for a 50-car parking lot on the same property, this time based on feedback from the Friends of Raymond Cape. The proposal, supported by the advocacy group, eliminated the proposed ring road in favor of walking paths, and replaces the 25-foot light poles with 12-foot light poles. The revised application also set the parking lot farther back from Cape Road, in an effort to maintain the area’s rural character.

On Jan. 13, the Planning Board delivered a split decision on the second application, effectively tabling the matter, as members expressed concern that the proposal violated the town’s shoreland zoning provisions relating to off-site parking lots. According to the provisions, “off-site parking lots shall be allowed if they are within 300 feet of the lot containing the associated permitted use,” a measure intended to ensure pedestrian safety.

In a memo to the board, the town’s attorney, Mary Costigan of the law firm Bernstein Shur, suggested that although the proposal did not meet the 300-feet standard, the board could waive the requirement, as the proposal provides a safe pedestrian route to the ferry.

On Feb. 11, the board waived the off-site parking lot requirement and approved the application. According to Danielle Loring, Raymond’s code enforcement office administrative assistant, the board will formalize the approval in a written decision by April.

Frye Island design engineer Mark Gray applauded the decision.

“I am very pleased and so is the town of Frye Island now that this has come to a conclusion,” Gray said.

Gary Donohue, Frye Island’s town manager, could not be reached for comment by the Lake Region Weekly’s deadline.

But Barb Lovell, a key member of the Friends of Raymond Cape who has supported the second application, said she hopes Frye Island will modify the parking lot’s lighting arrangement before the board issues its final written approval. An earlier version of the application featured diminutive bollard lights in the parking lot, instead of 12-foot overhead fixtures, but was taken out following a recommendation from the board.

“If things can be waived, we would hope that there would be consideration for a waiver of the 12-foot lighting fixture,” Lovell said. “Why won’t they consider waiving the 12-foot lights and going back to the bollards?”

According to Gray, he would need to submit an amended application in order to change the lighting.

“There are no current plans to make a re-application,” Gray said. “The lighting scheme that was approved was actually a compromise. They relaxed the standards. They allowed a lower light intensity level.”