letter to the editor

CMBG permit should be retracted

Tue, 09/12/2017 - 9:15am

Dear Editor:

I was very disturbed to learn, when I attended the appeals board meeting at Boothbay Town Hall on July 27, 2017, that the Botanical Gardens recently chose to change its designation as a botanical garden/“museum” to botanical garden/“school” in order to utilize a zoning “loophole” to enable them to build 500 +/- more parking spaces in a “watershed overlay zone,” which protects the Knickerbocker Lake area, for a total of 800 +/- parking spaces.

Jason Anthony, whose family is appealing this decision, said CMBG, in previous grant applications, described itself as a museum. He said that “Seven percent of their staff are teachers, and students account for three percent of visitors. They (CMBG) don’t come close to meeting standards as an educational facility.” If this is so, CMBG clearly does not meet the standards and is not a school, and the permit should be retracted by the appeals board.

I believe the board should also mandate that the large area that has already been blasted and deforested in preparation for the parking lot be immediately remediated by reforestation.

Lucinda Morse Witt

Boothbay Harbor