BRUNSWICK

Coastal Enterprises Inc.’s plans for a new office building on the site of the former town offices and recreation center were approved Tuesday by the Brunswick Planning Board.

The planning board had already approved the sketch plan in January, and the Village Review Board approved in April by a 4-2 vote the demolition of the two existing buildings at 28-30 Federal St. as well as a certificate of appropriateness for CEI’s new office building.

CEI, a private, nonprofit community development corporation, is consolidating its Portland and Wiscasset offices in Brunswick by razing the municipal building and rec center to make way for a two-story, 21,780-squarefoot office building.

The town’s municipal offices moved last week to the renovated McLellan Building at 85 Union St., whereas the rec center relocated to Brunswick Landing in November 2013.

CEI’s proposed new building is nearly identical in size as the former Hawthorne school that also sits on that street. Representatives for the project have said that CEI is attempting to build a contemporary-looking building that still blends into the neighborhood, using a mix- ture of clapboard and brick on the facade.

The proposal wasn’t without some detractors. The state’s top historian and some neighbors previously complained that CEI’s proposed building doesn’t fit the federalist-style architecture that many structures in the area have.

Town Councilor Jane Millett on Tuesday said that the Village Review Board’s findings were contrary to the historic preservation district. CEI has complied with the town ordinance, Millett said, but that ordinance was “misaligned” with historic preservation.

“I think that’s something we need to work on,” said Millett.

Planning Board Chairman Charles Frizzle said that the VRB’s members specialized in areas such as history and architecture.

“I, for one, am not going to second guess the ruling of the Village Review Board,” said Frizzle.

CEI is not required to build a federalist-style building, and the town’s planning and development staff found CEI’s proposal to be more compatible with the surrounding architecture than the former municipal building and rec center.

Also on Tuesday, the planning board approved Bowdoin College’s plans for a solar array on land it owns on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. Plans include a 655-kilowatt solar panel system with a 200-footlong, 10-foot-wide gravel driveway.

Bowdoin has partnered with the company SolarCity, which is building and maintaining the solar array that, when completed, would be the largest in Maine. A utility line, the permit for which has been approved by the town council, will connect the two locations. Construction on the line will begin next month.

In response to questions over safety, SolarCity Project Manager Matt Gitt said the array will be protected by a 6-foot-high chain link fence. The panels, Gitt said, are “basically the same stuff people mount near the sides of their houses.”

Construction of the solar panel array itself is scheduled to begin in late June, and last will take about six weeks, according to Gitt. The facility could be operational by August. The power plant would generate much of the energy used to power the school’s largest athletic facilities, and will offset about 8 percent of Bowdoin’s annual electricity usage.

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com

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