Tuesday, April 18, 2017, at a Select Board meeting, Jaime Francomano, director of  Planning and Community Development, repeated twice when tasked with the obvious challenge of the potential parking issue with this proposed hotel, stated “With this new permitted use, the Planning Board has a VERY wide discretion to waive any parking that may go with it.”

This is the same meeting where Mr. Stuart Smith approached the board to ask about this permitted use for a proposed hotel in the Village of Rockport and stated he was planning on building “a 20-22 sleeping room hotel.”

He packaged it as “this would bring much needed vitality to the downtown of Rockport.”

On Jan. 13, 2020 the Select Board voted to eliminate the requirement for off-street parking in the downtown area. 

There was no provision for dealing with increased parking needs by new activities in the downtown, or mention in the motion, of requiring  pursuing what effect a new business would have on parking. There was no previous notification that it would be up for a vote, so, of course, there was no ability for public comment, or anyone to know this even happened.

The Select Board voted to have the Ordinance Review Committee draft original language for this which would completely eliminate the parking requirement downtown for this hotel. This will compound the problem with any new uses that are allowed to come into the harbor without any consideration for parking.

TheORC includes Will Gartley who is the engineer for the new hotel. 

I would like to ask a few questions:

1. When residents voted on this agenda to approve a hotel, they did so with confidence in their town’s ordinances, bylaws and regulations established to ensure a responsible process; to keep the integrity of the Village of Rockport safe, review the full impact for all, and parking compliances would be enforced.
   
   Is this the case? No.
   
   Let’s start with how did the town come up with the number 40 for “sleeping rooms.” By admittance of Geoffery Parker at a Select Board meeting, it was an arbitrary number they chose, no formulas, no statistics.
   
   There have been no professional third-party traffic studies and no cost evaluation done for the cost of to the town - additional policing to enforce the two hour parking limit, added safety concerns of cars and valet drivers pulling out of Main Street onto Central Street hasn’t been presented, road maintenance, park cleaning, the added traffic produced, septic…etc.
   
   The Zoning Board of Appeals, on Jan. 22, had to rewrite language to approve an offsite parking application for this hotel.
   
   Thirty-five spaces will be allowed at the original Hoboken Garden for shuttle busses and valet scooters to park and transport guests automobiles to and from the hotel.
   
   The vote on the ballot in 2017 was put to the residents before the new Rockport Library plan was presented or established. This new library includes meeting rooms and is much larger than what residents agreed upon, by the same architect for this hotel! I would have hoped that a project of this scope of impact in the Village would have required responsible awareness to the residents of Rockport before the vote was put forth.
   
   There has been no due diligence to study the impact of the area for this hotel.  

1. “ Add a much-needed revitalizing to the Village.”
   
   Why is there much needed revitalizing? Where is this revitalizing going to happen? There is a whole lot of Rockport out there we can help “revitalize” with much easier access and less impact on such a heavily residential area that is nationally registered as a Historical District.
   
   Several other Rockport residents could benefit from a large 40 room hotel being built in an area that would be more beneficial to all.
   
   The owner of this new hotel also owns 70 acres of waterfront property and rental cottages on Route 1 (formerly known as Oakland Park) which could be a dynamite place to build on and around! 20 acres on Route 90, build a spa retreat, there is so much “healing” in this area, it could have a fantastic store selling “healing” and natural products. Have yoga classes or retreats.
   
   How about the 15,000 square foot grandfathered footprint at Hoboken Gardens (previous site open for building)/ Create a cooking school, maybe “farm to table” theme, a hotel experience within walking distance to Rockport Harbor. All sites could be tied into Maine Sports for rental equipment and trip idea. All three areas have lots of parking, space and would create a lot of income and “revitalizing” without hurting the footprint of our beloved village. This would open up the traffic to the whole area of Rockport not just the Harbor Village and then “shuttle them to Camden”. 

Locals from Rockland, Camden and Rockport retreat to the rocks off Beauchamp Point and our harbor to get away from the craziness of the tourist season during the summers! You do not come to Rockport to be “Revitalized,” you come to breath. We don’t want it to be revitalized, if we did, we would have moved to a different place. 

Thank you to the people who gave us all in the area Beauchamp Point; Mrs. Helene Bok for donating the Vesper Children’s Chapel, Charles and Mary Chatfield for donating Beauchamp Point Preserve, and Maine Coast Heritage Trust for creating the Aldemere Farm for us to enjoy. 

1. What about parking and traffic safety?
   
   On July 12, 2012 an article was published in the Village Soup regarding parking issues on Mechanic Street entering Beauchamp Point Road. 
   
   Mrs. Ruth Allen said “It’s a mess. Parking is getting worse and worse.”
   
   The Select Board and Police force helped enact a parking permit for residents to help elevate this parking issue. That was eight years ago!
   
   Can you imagine the traffic with this hotel added and their offsite parking valet service?
   
   Their solution is to waive needing onsite parking and to approve an offsite parking lot “within a reasonable distance” three-quarters of a mile away from the hotel using scooters and shuttle bus. This seems like a huge safety and traffic concern. This will entail nine trips up and down Pascal Ave every time a guest wants to go anywhere and all times of the night and day (arrive, take care to offsite, valet trip back to hotel. Wanting to go just ONCE then the valet goes up to Hoboken/ Maine St Meets/, comes back to hotel, the guest drives through town to leave. They come back. From their outing and it is repeated = 9 trips for just ONE outing per guest!) Not to mention the safety concerns about people driving around the corner of the village with pedestrians crossing in a blind spot. 

1. What about light pollution? The night skies above Rockport are exceptional because of a lack of commercial light pollution. A hotel of this size would surely have a negative effect regarding this aspect. An increase in light sources, be it from light escaping hotel windows at night, lights on balconies of rooms (proposed to outdoor lanterns for each room on either side of their sliding doors), a roof-top bar, or car/scooter headlights on in the dark will absolutely be detrimental to the pristine night sky above us. There is an argument that there was a hotel before. In 1832-1892 there was a hotel, where the old/now new library stands. It was a 30 “Sleeping Room” hotel.
   
   This land was then donated to the town by the Bok family to build the original town library. Surely this hotel did not have a roof top bar! And if any electricity at all, not to the extent this new 26 room hotel will brighten our skies with. Ironically, on the desk of the Select Board who is so gung-ho about this hotel and “revitalizing Rockport”, there sat a flyer “Maine is changing”. It had three illustrated scene’s one on top of the other.  The top one has lots of stars and constellations. The second one has a few buildings with lights on and less stars and constellations, third frame has at least three buildings with their lights on and you can no longer see the stars. Ironically, the meeting where the Select Board of Jan. 13, where they voted to waive the parking, there is a poster on the desk of one of the board members.
   
   There were three illustrated frames. On the top was a night sky full of stars and constellations, the second frame a few buildings were added, and the starts and constellations were fewer, the third and bottom frame had more buildings and the starts and constellations were gone.
   
   The title of this poster is “Maine is changing” in support of helping stop light pollution from over building. While the vote they took that night did exactly what their poster warned about!                                                                                                               

1. Historically what are the plans for preservation and keeping to scale in this Nationally Registered Historical District? Between 18 Central and Union Hall, where the proposed space is to build the hotel, used to be the Rockport Ice Co and a small building, once a Post Office (20 and 22 Central). Between the old existing 20 Central and 18 Central has ALWAYS been an open space measuring 35 feet  on Central Street and narrowing to 20-feet down on the harbor side of the lot. That is why there are windows on the west side of 18 Central. According Sanborn map company, 20 Central building was 33' tall,  about 50 feet wide and 60 feet deep. The gap between buildings scale is about  35 feet on the street and about 20' in the rear. This area is also a National Historic District, we would hope that a hotel would be built with the intent to not go over the historical footprint and respect the integrity of this historical area and keep this area open for the continued open space and view.

There is a voice of reason in our local government and I would like to applaud this member who sits on the Board of Appeals. She voiced her concern for the impact on the village during the vote that took place in January 2020 to approve off-site parking.

“We don’t know, it is a guess at this point. In reality I don’t think we have the authority, sufficient information, or professional background to make these decisions.”

This hotel, with the now added size and space of the new library will have a “...huge impact on the heart and soul of our Village”. Thank you to that member on the Board of Appeals. Let’s take her advice and slow down. Allow the new library to become part of the fabric of this community.  Consider the changes in traffic flow and consider the implications new development will have. If you have to waive on-site parking, or anything for that matter, maybe this isn’t a good idea.  

There are new board members who have recently moved to Rockport, I ask, why did you move to Rockport and then want to change it so much? The drive to build and change just isn’t the Rockport Village way, we are a sleepy quiet people, and we like it that way. There has to be a more creative way to come up with income for the town. Selling off our harbor and commercializing it is not creative. We are one of the last true harbors in Maine that has not sold out. 

I feel badly for the boards who had the outcome of this vote to be in favor of the hotel by a long margin and then to be met with such resistance. But the resistance is coming from your residents and citizens, who you also represent. Who assumed the ordinances and requirements would have been kept in place to monitor and protect us from what would be built. It appears all directions and decisions from the boards are for one direction, pro hotel, and we implore you to step back and look at it from the points of so many concerned residents for very legitimate reasons. We do not feel what we are asking for is unreasonable at all! Jeff Parker said at that meeting that the 40 number was just selected and “it could be changed at any time”. It is time to change it. 

We were told there was not going to be a vote for the hotel February 27.

It turns out there was a vote, and not only a vote, but a limit to three minutes for any person who wanted to talk.

Residents were cut off in mid-sentence, the request for third party professional traffic study was dismissed…this is not how to treat your concerned residents, who care about their town.

They are not there for selfish reasons. I STRONGLY urge the revamping the “much needed revitalizing” plan or concept for the downtown area of Rockport to fully inform residents on what the plans are and what everyone wants.

There has been talk of condos and more retail stores! Stuart Smith also owns 14 and 16 Central where the two cottages used to be but is now a park. Are there plans to develop here as well?

Thanks to the parking ordinances being waived, parking will not be a deterrent for more growth in this area.

Bill Post said, when explaining his view and thoughts for being the new town manager, that he wanted to see a town newsletter… What a great idea! Communicate, but listen!

The library has already torn us apart as a village, this hotel is doing the same. Any further development with retail stores and condos is going to be met with the same fervor by any number of concerned citizens. Something isn’t right. There has never been such a divide in Rockport.

Is Stuart Smith even a Rockport resident?

Why does he have so much pull on our boards?

We want a professional third party traffic study is done. If it shows the town can handle the traffic, a 21-room hotel built leaving the space open between 18 Central and 20 Central to keep the historic view and open space that has been there forever. No outside lanterns on balconies to help alleviate light pollution to a pristine area. And no more growth without due notice, full disclosure and transparency to the Rockport residents?

Look at other ways to add vibrancy for Rockport without decimating our quiet village. 

I care deeply for this town. I appreciate the time and efforts of all board members and town officials. I just wish they would listen to their residents a little better and slow down, do due diligence to this project that will not ever be undone once it is done. Bill Post says on his bio that he wants to “persevere Rockport’s quality of life.”

Kathie Grealish lives in Rockport