RAYMOND CAPE – For about a year now, since Frye Island applied to the Raymond Planning Board to erect a parking lot on the mainland across from the ferry landing, Raymond Cape residents have been outspoken in their opposition to the project.

Now Frye Islanders are joining the chorus.

Led by longtime islander Reba Orszag, a group of island residents known as the Frye Islanders for Responsible Development formed last week. The group is opposed to spending money on a parking lot and ring road proposal that they say does little to alleviate traffic safety concerns.

They also say island government spends money too freely, made evident by the $21 property tax rate, a $150,000 trash compactor, $100,000 tennis courts and the parking lot project that has been pegged at $1.5 million. They say the project is a tax overreach on unsuspecting islanders who want to avoid politics on their summer vacations and trust their town government to budget wisely.

“I know of no resident on Frye Island who wants this parking lot, except those who have planned it,” Orszag said. “This is a very costly event. It will be an additional tax burden for islanders. And honestly, I don’t understand why they are pushing it.”

According to Town Manager Wayne Fournier, the parking proposal would allow a safe, off-street space for vehicles to form queues during peak ferry usage, especially on holiday weekends. He said a ring road, which would incorporate nearby Quarry Cove Road and circle back to Cape Road, is a preferable method of dealing with overflow lines of traffic, rather than the present arrangement where vehicles have to wait along Cape Road, a curvy roadway that runs by the ferry access road.

“What we’re trying to do is to at least minimize if not eliminate the cars that wind up having to stop in the ferry queue on the Cape Road,” he said. “It doesn’t happen often at this point, maybe half a dozen times a year, but at times the queue for the ferry is so long it extends out onto the Cape Road. And obviously when you have a parked car on the Cape Road it’s a dangerous situation.”

Orszag’s fellow group member, Therese Gibson, is likewise perplexed the government is proposing a parking lot, since she said it would reduce traffic safety, rather than improve it.

“Safety is not an issue. That’s a charade,” Gibson said. “Raymond’s main hangup with approving this is the traffic problems that we’ll be causing by introducing pedestrians and vehicles coming across Cape Road where none would cross previously. So instead of solving a traffic problem, we’re creating a traffic problem.”

Another issue at play in the parking-lot saga is future expansion of Frye Island. Fournier said the parking lot would allow for future population growth. At present, there are 520 homes on the island with 10-12 new homes being constructed each year. At that rate, the island would reach build-out of 750 homes in about 20 years, Fournier said.

“So when you consider there could be an additional 50 percent build-out here, which one would equate to 50 percent more traffic, it could be a serious issue,” Fournier said. “So we’re trying to look ahead and see if there’s a way we could minimize it and prevent a serious accident out there. Now, a lot of people say that’s not going to happen. Well, I hope they’re right.”

Orszag and Gibson say little public information has been distributed to islanders regarding the plan, which they say has changed in scope several times since 2009, when the concept of a parking lot on the mainland was first discussed. Because of the lack of information, they are skeptical of town government’s long-term plans. Frank LiMauro, a 35-year island resident, agrees.

“They’ve changed the design so many times now. When they started out they had a three-phase project where they would end up with 300 cars parked there. Now they’re down to 30-40 cars, but it’s like the Trojan Horse. Once they get inside they’ll be back for more, so they’ll always be building, building, building and adding more parking,” LiMauro said.

The town bought the several-acre property on the mainland in the mid-2000s and once discussed building a town hall there.

“They bought that property a few years ago and now they’re pushing this because they have to have something to justify why did they buy that land,” LiMauro said. “But I feel it’s unnecessary at this time. I think it’s an expense that could be avoided. Our taxes are going up dramatically this year, and there is no support for this among most of the island people. It’s premature, not well thought out, and there are other options available.”

If the traffic backup is truly an issue, one of those other options, said group member Chris Gruner, is scrapping the parking lot plan that he said would intrude on the natural landscape of Raymond Cape in favor of more ferry access lanes on land the town owns beside the access road.

“So, widen the ferry road on the southern part of that roadway. We own the land into that cove. Increase the number of lanes. You’ve got room to put in two or three lanes. That would solve the problem. Cars would then never back up onto Cape Road. They would spill over into the other lanes and someone would control traffic,” Gruner said.

Gibson, who has lived on the island since 2005, challenges the notion that that there is indeed a traffic issue. She said she’s studied records of traffic patterns dating from 2010, and “at no time have we surpassed our capacity for two ferries working. The only time we exceed our capacity is if we have a ferry that’s broken.”

Gibson said the money in the town’s transportation fund, which is earmarked for ferry upkeep, is at about $400,000, and that the island will need to replace its ferries soon. She said depleting the ferry fund with the parking lot project is unwise.

“The ferries are on their last legs, we’re going to have to replace them between 2019 and 2024. It costs $2 million to replace them. We only have $407,000 in our transportation reserve. Why is that? It’s because we bought this property and are trying to do a million dollars worth of development for a parking lot and ring road,” Gibson said. “So, we’re going to have to make a choice. We can either save our money for new ferries or we can have a parking lot but no ferries. So, it’s really cut and dried if you ask me.”

While members of group opposed to the parking lot aren’t sure of their government’s ultimate aims, John Ewalt, who lives on Raymond Cape, says the parking lot, which also includes a large building and seven 25-foot light poles, could become Frye Island’s transportation hub. Visitors and residents, he said, could leave their cars on the mainland, and delivery drivers bringing items to the golf course or store on the island could unpack their product at a mainland storage building and avoid the trip across the ferry, he said.

“Think about it, with a parking lot on the mainland, this will be a warehousing area because trucks won’t want to go over, and then you’ll have trash Dumpsters. So we’ll have traffic, smell and noise. That’ll make this the Frye Island industrial district,” Ewalt said.

Fournier said the purpose of the parking lot proposal – and the past year of working with the Raymond Planning Board and various government regulators, such as Department of Environmental Protection – isn’t to introduce elaborate activity on the mainland, but to handle future growth.

“How long will it take to get from 520 houses out here to 750? Your guess is as good as mine,” he said. “But if you consider a 50-percent increase in traffic over the next 20 years, then we obviously have to do something. That’s what this is about.”

Opponents of the proposed Frye Island parking lot on Raymond Cape gather near the ferry landing on the mainland Monday evening to discuss the project. Their aim is to “stop” what they call an expensive overreach by local government.Parking lot opponent Therese Gibson of Takoma Park, Md., is a summer resident of Frye Island. She says the parking lot proposal is a waste of taxpayer money and would harm traffic safety rather than improve it.Parking lot opponent Joe Olsen of Stratham, N.H., spends the summer at the tip of Raymond Neck.Parking lot opponent John Ewalt of Annapolis, Md., spends four months of the year on Raymond Neck.Ryan and Audrey Martin, of Hingham, Mass., young summer residents of Raymond Cape, made signs to express their opposition to the parking lot project.