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Shoreland Zoning miscues under scrutiny by selectmen

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Selectmen Chair Chip Harlow, left, and outgoing CEO Mike Beaulieu

LEBANON - Outgoing Code Enforcement Officer Mike Beaulieu turned in his resignation the same day he was scheduled to meet with a Maine Department of Environmental Protection employee over a potential stop work order over a Shoreland Zoning issue on Sewell Shores Road, Lebanon's selectmen chair said on Thursday.

Selectmen Chair Chip Harlow explained at a regularly scheduled selectmen's meeting that Beaulieu and the DEP official spoke on Sept. 14 and were supposed to meet on Sept. 18 to discuss the Sewell Shores Road issue, the same day he tendered his resignation.

Harlow announced Beaulieu was resigning later Sept. 18 after the conclusion of an appeals board meeting.

Beaulieu told The Rochester Voice on Tuesday that his resignation had nothing to do with Monday's contentious meeting over a Shoreland Zoning dispute over a property owner's plans for a shed not far from the shoreline of Spaulding Pond. The Appeals Board OK'd the shed's construction during last Monday's meeting.

Harlow also said the appeals board hearing last Monday and another on Tuesday showed "major holes" in code enforcement or town ordinances, specifically singling out Shoreland Zoning.

He noted that if construction is going on in a Shoreland Protection area builders need three permits: a regular town building permit, a shoreland zoning permit approved by the town codes officer or planning board and a Natural Resources Protection Act permit from the state.

He said in many cases applicants were getting a building permit and "everything else has fallen off the wayside."

Harlow said the town will also be getting a letter from the DEP about an imminent enforcement action on a property owner who had allegedly cut down mature trees along a town stream. He said the DEP was advising the town fine the property owner $5,000.

A letter summarizing the investigation and urging action by the town was first received in January 2016, and nothing has been done about it, Harlow noted.

"The DEP is upset because we're not doing what we're supposed to do, and I don't blame them," he added.

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