Tremont assuaged by developer's new plans

Thursday, June 09, 2005 - Bangor Daily News

TREMONT - A Florida developer who has proposed to build a 300-foot-long pier and an undisclosed number of houses in Seal Cove assured a worried community Tuesday night at a crowded public hearing that the pier and land will be used by his immediate family only.

"We will build a maximum of six houses on the property," Pritam Singh said at the hearing. "When I drive across this bridge, this is heaven. I want to be happy here. I want to have happy neighbors."

Local ordinances would allow a maximum of 49 condominiums or 23 house lots on the 22-acre Cape Road property, one of the town's least developed areas. Singh's future son-in-law, Robert Egbert of Marathon, Fla., applied in February for a permit to build the pier.

Singh said that he had not come to his final decision about the family's plans for the land until very recently, and would meet with the Maine Coast Heritage Trust in Topsham Wednesday to discuss obtaining a conservation easement on the property.

"I'm doing that because it's the right thing to do," he said.

More than 40 people packed the town's small municipal chambers as they waited to hear some answers to the many questions that were triggered by the proposed pier. .

An influx of last-minute information submitted primarily by Douglas Chapman, a Bar Harbor attorney hired to represent abutting landowners, caused the planning board to vote unanimously to continue the hearing on June 21. Enough answers were provided by Singh, however, to assuage the concerns of some Cape Road neighbors.

"I think you should build a house for each one of your children," Peter Butler, a Cape Road land owner said to Singh after the close of the hearing. "I'm looking through a different tunnel of light now."

Butler and Singh shook hands after Singh explained his plans for construction of the Reed Point pier, which is controversial in part because of its size.

The 300-foot-long structure would incorporate a 137-foot-long fixed pier, a 45-foot-long ramp and two 480-square-foot floats.

"We did it so that it was as light as possible, as low as possible," Singh said. "It's not the best pier for us but we thought it was the best pier for the community."

Chapman had no comment Wednesday about the hearing.