Planning Board meeting showdown on campground 'amenities' set for tonight

Milton's Code Enforcement Office has determined these are RVs, not Park Models. (Courtesy photo)

MILTON - The fragile ecosystem of Milton Three Ponds, $2 million of tax revenue to the towns of Milton and Lebanon and Acton, Maine, and a way of life for campground abutters could all be on line tonight when the Planning Board meets at 6:30 p.m. to decide whether or not MiTeJo Campground can move forward with a plan to install a host of amenities such as a bath house with café, swimming pool, a water playground, mini golf course and more.

At a Town Meeting vote in March voters overwhelmingly rejected the "amenities" proposed, but less than a month later the campground, owned by resort giant Northgate, filed an almost identical plan review to the town's Land Use Office. That application, approved by Town Planner Bruce Woodruff during a May meeting, will be the subject of today's 6:30 p.m. meeting and vote.

Milton voters may remember several years back in 2014 when a regional 54-acre landfill was proposed for Piggott Hill Road. Milton voters who saw the facility as an existential threat to MTP overwhelming rejected having the landfill here when it came to a vote in March 2015, and the issue went away.

That's not the case this time. Since the Mitejo Campground's (Three Pond Resorts) initial expansion request was rejected two years ago, the campground has seemingly flouted town ordinances and regulations to include hot tubs, a Jumbo Jumper and 26 log cabins that town regulators have said were RVs and not subject to a special exception. The installed cabins have skirting, permanent water and sewer connectors and rent for $173 per night.

Meanwhile, many of the formerly termed amenities, which required a permit, now don't, according to the Town Code Enforcement Officer since the "amenities" are now being classified as "accessories" necessary for the campground to compete in the campground marketplace.

A group of abutters, the TPPA and environmentalists have been leading the fight to stop the expansion, which is now in the hands of the state Supreme Court, and the amenities package that will be voted on tonight.

Norm Turgeon, who is a past president and current Board of Director for the TPPA, is confounded that the town of Milton is even still dealing with this.

"We have a hard time understanding why anyone other than the campground owners would want this to happen," he said on Monday. "We don't understand why anyone would think the town would benefit from this."

The meeting takes place at the Emma Ramsey Center.