Standish residents packed a stuffy Standish Town Hall Monday night for a contentious, record-setting Planning Board meeting. Beginning at 7:30 p.m. and adjourning at 1:50 a.m., the meeting achieved the dubious distinction of both the longest and most crowded on record.

Though the board scheduled a full agenda, most of the crowd attended for what Paul Mosley, Planning Board chairman, chose to save for last: Standish resident Dana Lampron’s proposed site plan for Pit Stop Fueling, Inc. at 125 Ossipee Trail East.

When the board went to a vote, despite the many impassioned pleas from audience members, they voted six to one, with Billington casting the lone dissenting vote, to grant approval to Dana Lampron for the Pit Stop.

The Pit Stop project was first introduced to the board in December when Walter Stinson of Sebago Technics, representing Lampron, presented plans for the property, formerly the Manley Smith residence. To satisfy zoning requirements, Lampron also planned to purchase a strip of land in the back that was owned by Colonial Marketplace.

Lampron has proposed a building for the site that would be 2,772 sq. ft., about 1,500 sq. ft. for the convenience store and about 1,200 sq. ft. for the fuel business. The Zoning Board had previously approved the special exception he needed for a building over 2,000 sq. ft.

Most of those present who spoke expressed their dissatisfaction with the project, citing various reasons why they believed the plan should not be approved.

Bill Sutton, among others, voiced his concern over the buffer zone: “I was on the Planning Board when Colonial Marketplace went in and part of the fight over [that] was to move it back away from Route 25 and back away from the village area along the front and to set up buffering to protect everything around it… I’m afraid now this will become a strip because you’re putting things there that we tried to keep out.”

Carol Billington, Planning Board vice chair, replied, “That’s been bothering me, too.” She went on to make the point that the Colonial Marketplace was based on its total package, which included that buffering.

Stinson and the board discussed at length the zoning requirements for buffers and agreed on a plan that satisfied both parties.

The phrase “total package” that Billington first used was employed several other times during the evening with people questioning, “how is the area as a whole going to be affected?”

Other items of concern included the impact of increased traffic, drainage problems that could affect Peter and Carolyn Biegel, abutters to the project, the installation of sidewalks, and the number and placement of parking spaces on the property.

Peter Biegel questioned the adequacy of the required drainage plans citing not only concerns about the quantity of water that could wash onto their property but the quality as well.

The consensus of the board and Stinson was to wait for the DEP report, required for the project to go forward.

One by one these and several other issues were questioned and discussed, with the board and Lampron coming to an agreement on each. During these often-lengthy deliberations, Mosley reminded the audience to be quiet, once with the admonition: “Let’s be nice, now.”

But the real sticking point with the crowd was the definition of bulk storage and whether the Pit Stop met that definition. Many felt that because Lampron would be allowed to store oil, which would be resold to heating oil customers, that Lampron’s business would fall under the bulk storage definition and not under retail sales.

“Putting in a fuel warehouse [is] essentially being involved in the distribution of heating oil,” said Peter Hall, a member of the comprehensive plan update committee. “It’s not a retail sale at the station – it takes place at the point the goods are transferred. It’s not a retail use.”

Mosley answered, “When we read ordinances and for us to be consistent we have to consider it as a retail sale. I understand that you may not agree with that interpretation.”

“Nor would Maine Revenue Services,” replied Hall.

Carolyn Biegel, representing Friends of Standish Village, had researched the town’s history of granting permits in the village for a bulk storage facility. She said two other businesses in the same zone were denied approval for bulk or warehouse storage.

According to Biegel, the group also called the code enforcement officers from four surrounding towns: Windham, Gorham, Falmouth, and Scarborough. She said all considered the business to be bulk storage and none would allow it under similar zoning ordinances in their towns.

Several people spoke in support of Lampron and his project during the evening.

“This particular business fits the criteria that the town set forth which is acceptable,” said Ed Taylor. “Homeowners and landowners in the process of purchasing property should know what their property is near – if it’s in a zone that allows this type of project… I think Mr. Lampron has done a nice job of being neighbor friendly from what I’ve seen so far.”

Late in the meeting, when Mike Staples began to express his backing for Lampron, crowd noise increased. Mosley abruptly rapped the gavel and closed the meeting but within seconds, apologized and attributed his haste to an attempt to quiet the audience.

Ken Norton, lawyer for Friends of Standish Village, shared his legal opinion regarding the warehousing concern and several other points that he felt were in conflict. Norton pointed out that “warehousing as defined in the ordinances says ‘a building used primarily for temporary storage for goods and materials.'” He warned the board that to ignore the definition as it pertains to Lampron’s proposal would “open a huge hole which people like me are going to bullnose through…Be prepared, for if you say yes to this you can’t say no to… [a Wal-mart distribution facility] in the future.”

But the board did not agree that Lampron’s proposal constituted warehouse storage and Mosley said, “We have already made it quite clear and defined that he cannot do any resale business; he is not allowed to use that tanker to resell product to other businesses. It is not allowed.”

Lampron responded to the criticism of the crowd. “People who have never shown up before tonight,” he said to the board, “are here to throw a lot of things at you and they’ve achieved their goal: delay, delay, delay.”

Asked to comment on the meeting, Lampron said, “To be honest with you, I was surprised but not totally surprised. For the past four or five months there were only a half-dozen people who showed up at the meetings – Mr. and Mrs. Biegel and some Historical Society members… But they were misinformed. I don’t blame Mrs. Biegel but I don’t think some of the information she was getting was correct.”

This Cape Cod style home sits on the site of the future home of the Pit Stop. The Standish Planning Board approved the plan at Monday

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