ROCKLAND — Architects adjusted the design of a proposed boutique hotel following a lengthy public hearing earlier this spring, and on June 10, after two hours and 45 minutes, the Rockland Planning Board nodded their approval of the $2.9 million project sited for Main Street on parcel overlooking the harbor.

Voting 4-0-1, the board endorsed ADZ Property LLC’s proposal to construct a five-story, 26-room hotel on the corner of Main and Pleasant streets. The project is called 250 Main Street. Planning Board member Kyle Swan abstained from the vote, advocating for a site walk of the parcel, and more refinements to the design of the north wall of the building.

If all permits and licenses fall into place, the hotel will be under construction beginning in September, with plans for a June 2015 opening, said its developer, Cabot Lyman, of Cushing.

The design of the proposed hotel had earned the skepticism of many Rockland residents, who delivered their opinions to the planning board May 20. That night, approximately 100 citizens, almost all of them Rockland taxpayers, attended the meeting, and the majority of the 24 who lined up to speak at the podium raised concerns about the hotel’s height, its potential effect on traffic flow, the parking plan for guests, and the appearance, in particular, of two exterior walls, one facing north, and the other facing west, toward the Pleasant Street neighborhood.

“It looks a lot better,” said Planning Board Chairman Erik Laustsen, early on at the June 10 meeting, as graphic renderings of the building were projected onto a screen that stood before the room.

Design modifications presented Tuesday evening include eliminating gray walls (the “fractured quarry” aesthetic) on the north and west side and instead, wrapping the terra cotta red tile around all sides. Additionally, more windows were added to the north side of the building.

Conditions of the June 10 approval included:

Any changes to design materials must be presented to planning board for approval;

Any protrusions or overhangs or awnings over sidewalk must be approved by the city council;

Drawings of the sidewalks must be submitted to the code enforcement officer and public works for approval;

Detailed drawings of rooftop HVAC need CEO approval; and

A performance bond is required. 

On June 10, the room was half as full as it had been three weeks prior, and it was but a handful of citizens who spoke, a few urging the planning board not to approve the project, a few urging the board otherwise.

Resident Amy Files said the planning board’s review did not rest on how much the hotel would eventually bring in tax revenue for the city.

“The decision is about the code,” she said.

“People are concerned about the height and the precedence it sets,” she said. “They didn't move into the area thinking it was an urban area.”

After researching Rockland’s presentation in articles and documents over the years, she said the descriptions of it embody characteristics of a town.

“It's a small town, and those words speak small coastal seaside town,” said Files. “It is important to protect that character.”

Resident Dan Bookham took the opposite position, saying Rockland is “under-roomed”, and added, “While we are rural, this isn't Appleton. It's rockland and urban and that should be guilding principle behind decision making.”

An abutting neighbor of the proposed project, Christian Dehlinger, said he lived for 25 years next door to the former building that occupied the site, an old house. It was not “all that great to look at,” he said. “The building going in is going to be better looking.”

“I love our little town, but as I go up and down streets, more and more properties are for sale,” said Dehlinger. The tax and mil rates need to be brought under control, or more revenue is needed the support the municipality.

“I'm sure this building is going to bring in more revenue,” he said. “I have no deal with Cabot, other than to support him as my neighbor and the project. I don't understand the big fuss is about. This thing isn't the monstrosity that everyone is worrying about.”

After 30 minutes of public comment, the planning board turned its attention to the architect, who delivered an update about design changes since mid-May. The hotel plans have been before the planning board since April.

Lyman said soon after the May 20 meeting that he heard the message about the aesthetics of the hotel’s north and south walls and in a May 22 phone conversation, he said: “We are probably going back to the terra cotta red tile, which was originally proposed. And, we will break up the north face with glass. The windows will get bigger.”

Lyman and his wife, Heidi, are the principals of ADZ Properties LLC, the business behind 250 Main Street. They, along with architects Scott Teis and Pamela Hawkes, of the Portland-based Scattergood Designs, sat at the table before the planning board at the meetings, answering questions about the aesthetics of the design, parking, its proximity and discussions with Rock City Coffee Roasters, landscaping and the solar panels that are to be placed on the roof.

The Lymans originally proposed the idea of developing the 4,288 square feet lot in 2010, but drew back, assessing the development as financially not viable.

Lyman owns Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding Co. in Thomaston, and had intended to help keep boatbuilders busy through the winter months with a Rockland building project.

“I thought it would help keep the boatyard busy,” he said. “The block came up for sale. A nice lot in a great location.” It presented, he said, the opportunity to “do something kind of cool.”

“We started out because we wanted to be part of the reinvention of Rockland,” he told the planning board at the May 20 meeting, citing Rockland’s restaurants, harbor and festivals. But, he put the project on hold.

“Financially it was not viable,” he said. “I called a halt to it.”

In the interim, he said he had done “quite a few studies” and concluded a high-end boutique hotel would make a good investment.

“People come and sleep in other towns,” he said, May 20. “Rockland could use some extra beds. Heidi and I wanted a building that had longevity, was architecturally interesting and economically viable.” 

He reiterated that point June 10, saying studies also projected that such a hotel would be viable year-round, with an estimated 47 percent occupancy rate even in the dead of winter.

“There is a lot happening downtown through the winter,” he said.

He said that since the May 20 meeting: “We made a lot of changes. Most of them very minor. The building essentially the same. We're pretty happy about it. I actually think it is better than it was.”

What’s changed?

The height of the building was scaled slightly down by seven feet, and now is 56 feet, six inches tall. Its elevator shaft is 61 feet. The solar panels on the roof are drawn at 70 feet. City code for height limitations in the zone is 65 feet, with utilities at 75 feet.

“We are trying to maintain a building that is indeed in scale with the rest of the community,” said architect Teis.

The rooftop deck has been removed for the time being.

 “Right now it's of the table,” said Lyman. We really want to get the building going. The idea is to make everybody comfortable. If we save a little money in the process, that's good.”

Whether or not a vegetated roof will be installed remains up the in. Lyman said there is an ongoing discussion about what kind of plants to use, and whether raised beds are an option.

The lower deck won't be a green garden, he said.

The developers said the solar panels, which are to primarily help heat water, could be installed so as to hide heating and air conditioning equipment.

We do know how to do solar arrays,” said Lyman, whose company has been producing and installing solar equipment for several years.

“We're working through all that now,” said Lyman. “We can lower and tip them.” 

Outdoor lighting, vents

Teis said six LED lights will be incorporated into the soffits, which are the eaves.

Initially, there will be no lighting on the roof.

“Until we go with something up there, there won't be anything up there,” said Lyman.

 It will be “very low level, polite, soft lighting,” he said.

The vent stack, which had been inside the north wall, is now on the outside of the wall.

Planning Board member Kyle Swan said he remained concerned about the design of the north wall.   

“The design of the north side of the building is not inviting to me,” he said, describing it as nondescript, and asked if more glass might be incorporated.

Teis responded that the design of that wall was not contingent on fire code. The design evolved from a similar look of other buildings downtown, and defended his plans as a refined elevation and one that is “anything but a common blank party wall.... We felt really good about this elevation.”

Lyman reinforced Teis, saying there was no point in putting more glass windows along that wall.

“We didn't think it needed any more,” said Lyman. “The stack going up is designed to break it up. I thought it came out pretty good.”

Plans also call for growing ivy up the west wall.

Swan questioned how that might look in the winter.

Lyman acknowledged that the winterscape is one of the reasons they have held back on it; however, he added, in Cambridge, Mass., ivy is all over schools there.

“It looks pretty good down there,” he said.

 Swan questioned why more construction details were not included in the plans presented and why the reliance on conditions of approval.

“We should have a lot of those details finished before us in black and white,” he said. “We are building a big building and I think the sidewalk details should be here.”

Rockland’s code enforcement officer responded, saying it was his purview to ensure the building is designed to all codes.

The planning board’s role, as was articulated by the city attorney, and reinforced by at least two board members, is to ensure the plans comply with standards outlined in city ordinance.

City Attorney Kevin Beal said the planning board is a quasi-judicial body whose responsbiiity is to neutrally and objectively apply site plan standards, and other standards established by the council.

“Your approach has been appropriate,” he told the board “Use is not a determination for planning board. Your decision on how you apply your standards.”

 Planning board member William Bodine said: “We are should be shackled by the code, by the site plan review, and by the standards, otherwise you would all be vulnerable to things like favoritism, cronyism, discrimination and our own personal favoritism. We, of necessity, are to set aside opinion. We can't intepret code. We have little wiggle waggle room. We are not legislative. We take what the council says and we enforce it.”

Construction timetable

Lyman told the board that preconstruction would begin in the boatbuilding shops.

“Hopefully, it goes up very fast,” he said. “We don't want to deal with traffic. We may do little things in preparing over a big part of the summer. We won't be bothering the street at all.”

He said in a an earlier conversation that  the building will be of steel construction, and be “really tight and well insulated”. The heating systems will be interesting, he said, as their design continues in consultation with a Portland engineer.

Interior construction will be coordinated with artisans at the boatyard, he said.

“I’ve got a lot of expertise at the boatyard,” he said. “It is a good crew and it is good to have them to rely on. It won’t be IKEA furniture.”

He said the hotel will be upscale, and “reflect what we have done over the last 35 years.”

The business of hotels

While Lyman has been in the boat-building business for almost four decades, the hotel business is new to him. He has hired Jesse Henry to help him run it. Henry said his company, Migis Hotel Group, has been been managing five hotels in different states, with functions, valet parking, and operations more intensive in size.

“This is a simple hotel, more a B&B in terms of events,” he said, at the May 20 meeting. The context of his comments concerned parking and traffic.

Lyman and the architects are currently negotiating with the Maine Eastern Railroad for parking spots in a lot adjacent to Midcoast Mental Health. A plan, if produced, would require approval of the city council.

Swan asked Lyman whether there is financial assurance that the project will reach completion. He cited the two-year gap when Lyman initially started the development process for condos at the same site in 2010, and then halted it.

Lyman said the timing of that project, with the ongoing flat economy, helped to dictate its discontinuance.

 “We are not going to start it if we can't finish it,” said Lyman. “We think there is a real need for this one rather than condos.”

In a May 22 conversation, Lyman said, “There is a lot of risk with a building like this in Rockland.”

But, he considers it to become an anchor of the South End of the city, complimented by the nearby Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge visitor’s center. He said Stuart Smith’s proposed hotel, also nearby, on the Rockland waterfront further illustrated the changing scape of the city.

“Stuart is a good friend,” he said.

One planning board member, Abbie Knickelbein, who is an alternate and therefore did not vote on the final application, offered her comments. She cited the height of the building and said the varying heights in the city makes the landscape interesting.

“It adds to the interest of living here, walking down the street and enjoying variety of architecture. It is going to be interesting and I'm really surprised that people are thinking it is going to trash their neighborhood.”

The next step in the process for Lyman’s project includes the application for a building permit filed with the city’s code enforcement office, and approval from awnings and overhang over the sidewalk.

If a citizen or group chooses to appeal the June 10 planning board decision, that appeal would be filed directly to Knox County Superior Court.

Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657.