Hospice of Southern Maine has cleared the first hurdle in its plan to build an 18-bed hospice house in Scarborough. The Zoning Board of Appeals granted the agency a special exception last week.

The special exception was necessary in order for the project to move to the Planning Board. Jody Deegan, chief executive officer of Hospice of Southern Maine, said the organization would present its plans as to the Planning Board soon as possible.

“I’m certainly pleased with the outcome, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us before this project comes to fruition,” she said.

Hospice of Southern Maine is attempting to build Southern Maine’s first hospice house and has run into some neighborhood opposition to the plan to build on Hunnewell Road.

Many neighbors feel the 15,700-square-foot facility is too large and would further aggravate an already difficult traffic situation. In addition, they felt the hospice house is not compatible with the neighborhood.

“The building is 10 times the size of my home,” said Hunnewell Road resident David Hughes, who was representing 22 other residents in opposition to the project. “To put this large commercial building in the midst of residential homes, the impact of that is significant.”

Bill Bamford, whose land would abut the hospice house, also spoke out against the proposal.

“It’s not the hospice itself, it’s the idea of taking a business and moving it in the middle of a residential neighborhood,” he said. “Our concern is a business is going to be located next to our homes and it’s going to change the character on the neighborhood.”

Following the meeting, Hughes said he was very disappointed with the board’s decision and that his group was exploring their options, including taking the issue to court.

“We strongly feel the board did not do what they were appointed to do,” he said.

Hospice, which has looked at about 20 sites in Scarborough, felt

the residential nature of Hunnewell Road area fit with its concept of a hospice house. Scarborough landowner Agnes Desfosses donated the five-acre lot to the non-profit organization.

“It’s a great place for hospice and I hope the town of Scarborough realizes there are a lot of dying people with no place to go,” said Theresa Desfosses at last week’s appeals board meeting. “We donated this because hospice is a great cause.”

By a three to two vote, with Mark Maroon and Ed Blaise voting against the measure, the board agreed to allow the plan to move forward.

Maroon said he was against the size of the project and, based on current zoning regulations for similar uses, suggested the board approve the project at 12-beds.

“I think the neighborhood is right,” said Maroon, who was the acting chairman since Chairman Patrick Dryzga could not attend the meeting due to illness. “I think there’s too much stress on the property.”

However, board members appeared to be persuaded by statements made by Hospice of Southern Maine indicating that 18 beds was necessary in order to make the facility fiscally solvent.

“There’s a point where you could make money and fail and they couldn’t go any smaller,” said board member Alvin Temm.

Hughes was disappointed the board spent so much time looking at the project’s economic feasibility and said that the economics of any project should not be a deciding factor in the board’s decision.

He added that he would be more comfortable with a reduction in the project’s size, even though he thinks that based on the two homes per acre zoning in the area the facility could be as low as six beds.

He said the board did not go through the ordinances he had identified as not being met by the hospice and did not make hospice prove how these areas were met. These areas include traffic and the building’s size.

“I really feel the Zoning Board of Appeals has not done what they were appointed to do,” he said. “They are not applying their ordinances.”

Making the vote difficult for the neighbors is the fact that two members who seemed to feel that hospice’s proposal was too large were not present at the meeting.

This was the second time the issue came before the board. During its January meeting, the board agreed to table the request at the request of Hospice of Southern Maine.

Following that meeting, both the hospice and neighborhood opponents met with a mediator to see if adjustments to the plan could be made. There were no major changes to the plan, and instead Hospice of Southern Maine submitted their original plan for review.

Deegan said some changes have been done to the plan, including reducing the building’s size, changing where it would be located on the lot, and altering the building’s lighting plan.

She also reviewed having smaller operations at multiple sites, but said it was not feasible and included a needless duplication of services.