FREEPORT — Faced with overwhelming opposition from residents on Tuesday night, the Town Council rejected a request for a zoning change that would have allowed Seacoast United Maine to build an indoor-outdoor soccer complex near Hedgehog Mountain.

More than 180 townspeople attended the standing-room-only public hearing on the soccer club’s request to create a wholly new recreational district within a rural residential district.

The council voted 5-2 to reject the request, with the majority saying they like the project but not the location, effectively killing an agreement to sell town land to Seacoast that runs out in April.

“It doesn’t seem like the appropriate place for it,” said Councilor Kristina Egan, who voted with councilors Jim Cassida, chairman, James Hendricks, Kate Arno and Sara Gideon.

Councilors Rich DeGrandpre and Charlotte Bishop voted against the motion, saying that a partnership with Seacoast would have been a good deal for the town.

Cassida said it was unfortunate that many people he talked to who supported the Seacoast proposal said they were too intimidated by the opposition to attend the hearing.

Seacoast representatives declined comment after the vote.

A show of hands at the Freeport Community Center indicated that the vast majority of audience members opposed the soccer club’s plan to build the complex on what is now town-owned land off Pownal Road.

It was the council’s first public hearing on the soccer club’s proposal since town officials started negotiating a land deal with Seacoast representatives more than two years ago.

Many people said they like soccer and hope Seacoast can find another location in Freeport, but they said the proposed site is inappropriate for a commercial use.

“I object to the town taking public land and turning it over to essentially private use,” said Wayne Hollingsworth of Durham Road, one of about 50 people who spoke against the zoning change.

Deborah Deatrick of Bristol Road was one of six people who spoke in favor of the zoning change, not including three Seacoast representatives who spoke before the hearing.

Deatrick, whose 14-year-old son plays for Seacoast, said the club’s affiliated facilities in Epping and Hampton, N.H., are clean, well run and used by kids from surrounding communities. She urged people to visit the New Hampshire facilities before deciding.

The two-hour hearing broke down at one point, when it was interrupted by Paul Willis, executive director of Seacoast United soccer, lacrosse and field hockey clubs. Willis stepped to the podium, ahead of several other people who were waiting in line to speak, saying that he wanted to make some clarifying points.

The room erupted in shouts, preventing Willis from speaking out of order. Cassida asked that Willis be allowed to speak, to no avail.

“I’m very disappointed by this community,” Cassida said.

“You make the rules, follow the rules,” someone shouted from the audience.

The council decided in April to give the club 12 acres of town-owned land to develop two outdoor artificial-turf fields and an indoor soccer arena. In exchange, the town would get some public use of the fields.

The pending land deal also required town officials to help the soccer club get needed zoning and environmental permits.

In November, the Planning Board issued a recommendation to the council opposing amendments to existing zoning language or designing an overlay district specifically to allow Seacoast’s project. Indoor recreation facilities, in particular, aren’t allowed in a rural residential zone.

The requested recreation district would encompass existing athletic fields on Hunter and Pownal roads, as well as the 12 acres in between. Freeport currently has no recreation district and no language in its zoning regulations to allow one.

Craig Sickels, athletic director of Regional School Unit 5, recently sent an email to community members questioning whether support for the Seacoast proposal would diminish support for a developing proposal to refurbish the Freeport High School campus, including its athletic facilities.

The Save Our Neighborhoods Coalition has hired John Bannon, a lawyer with Murray, Plumb & Murray in Portland, to represent its interests in blocking the Seacoast proposal. Bannon backs the coalition’s assertion that the soccer club’s proposal violates the town’s charter and comprehensive plan.

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at: kbouchard@pressherald.com

 

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