Sides form on future of island
By Peter Taber
(Created: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 5:22 PM EDT)
Strange bedfellows were evident Tuesday in the evolving politics surrounding Gov. John Baldacci’s sponsored initiative seeking consensus among widely disparate parties for a recommended future for Sears Island.
Those ostensibly committed to the preservation of the island divided sharply as to what degree of wildness they were prepared to endorse for the 941-acre undeveloped island. At one end of the spectrum, some environmentalists opted for compromises that potentially permit the investment of millions of dollars in buildings on the island and to provide parking areas for hundreds of motor vehicles.
Without repudiating a report sponsored by Islesboro Islands Trust (IIT) and endorsed by a number of environmental groups that suggests an investment approaching up to $10 million might be in order, other individuals emphasized their only interest is to see a single “modestly sized” building for educational and administrative activities or perhaps for office space leased to a government resource agency. They argued such a facility with an accompanying parking lot for a few motor vehicles would establish their signature on the island, a strategy intended in part to preemptively displace industrial development before it arises.
But the grassroots organization Fair Play for Sears Island, whose position is supported by such allied groups as Maine Rivers, Restore the North Woods and the Forest Ecology Action Network, argued the best approach would be maintaining the existing status quo with minimal intrusions on the complex web of life that distinguishes this largest piece of publicly owned wild island real estate on the East Coast. Above all, Fair Play’s call was for a non-motorized public recreational area distinguished by no buildings and no parking lots.
Before the nearly seven-hour-long session at Belfast’s Hutchinson Center wound down late Tuesday afternoon, Fair Play’s position had the endorsement of a number of those who would ideally like to see the island incorporated in an expanded port of Searsport.
During a two-hour period given over to statements of position from self-identified affinity groups, Scott Dickerson of the Coastal Mountains Land Trust based in Rockport was first up. Dickerson, whose group is promoting the three-tier IIT development plan at its website that starts with a $1.2 million investment, took a low-key approach. He said his group has reservations about even forming an affinity group given a perceived need to gather more information. Without going into specifics, he emphasized his group is open to the idea of possible modifications in its position but insisted this should not be taken as a sign of weakness.
"Though many of us would dearly love that there were no structures on the island in terms of buildings," he said, "the fact of the matter is we also recognize that there’s a need on a large preserve to have a stewardship and management presence." He described the psychology of such an approach as providing "a place where the public sees this facility and recognizes, oh yes, they’re taking care of this, I’m going to take care of it, too."
Although the plan endorsed by Coastal Mountains Land Trust suggests the possibility of a number of buildings on the island, some of them substantial, as well as a restaurant and parking for more than 300 motor vehicles, Dickerson said he felt a “modestly sized” building near the north end of the island with parking for “a few” vehicles would be sufficient.
Dickerson said he never cared about driving to Sears Island and seeing the cars parked on the causeway. He said it would be “more gracious” and in keeping with a proper entrance to a nature preserve to move the vehicles onto the island and hide them in landscaped enclaves of natural native vegetation.
"I think generally we’re not very fond of parking on the causeway unless a parking facility can be developed on the causeway that has a much more gracious and aesthetically pleasing entry to a nature preserve," he said. “So that leaves us with the alternative of parking on the island.”
Searsport native Harlan McLaughlin, spokesman for Fair Play for Sears Island, told Dickerson, “I see this as philosophically worlds apart from our plan.” At the same time, he acknowledged the irony that the physical difference between the Fair Play plan and the modest building and a few parking spaces that Dickerson was proposing is “actually very, very close.”
"As a matter of fact," he continued, “this plan could not be any closer to our plan and still be so different. Mostly it’s a symbolic difference but philosophically it’s a huge difference. It’s opening the door for development, allowing buildings, allowing vehicles on the island. This is developmental creep. First you have an office, then someone else says they want an office. It grows from there. But you can draw the line in the first place and say we’re not going to have cars and parking on the island. We’re going to work around it.”
Former Transportation Commissioner John Melrose of Maine Tomorrow argued the potential of Sears Island to be an important port asset some day should not be precluded. At the same time, Melrose’s position acknowledged that given the fact no significant project is on anyone’s radar screen now or in the foreseeable future and given the “high hurdles” inherent in the permitting and environmental review process, only a development project of overwhelmingly significant economic value to the state would have any likelihood of achieving reality.
In the meantime, he said, the matter of development at Sears Island remains a remote possibility and the best use of the island would be to maintain its status quo as a wild public property devoid of development.
"Existing passive recreational enjoyment of Sears Island can continue as long as operations within the port of Searsport are not compromised," reads one portion of the vision statement signed by Melrose and 10 other members of the steering committee participating in the Sears Island planning initiative.
Further on, the statement reads: "Since only the most compelling reason for a marine cargo terminal on Sears Island will clear local, state and federal regulatory review, the island will remain in its current state if regulatory approval can’t be secured."
In the course of his presentation, McLaughlin indicated Fair Play for Sears Island is interested in first establishing that the island’s status quo is maintained, then should a port or other development be proposed that it be left to the members of the full Legislature as representatives of the people to submit it to democratic review.
Fair Play’s official position is “any contemplated changes in the island’s de facto uses both as a public recreational area,” as well as a buffer for the port at Mack Point, “shall not take place without a full review by the Legislature followed by successful legislation contained in a stand-alone bill to that effect.”
A final paragraph in the statement adds “this vision is not conflicting with future port-type development since it preserves the option while not guaranteeing its fulfillment.”
The Sears Island Planning Initiative steering committee is next scheduled to meet Monday, Oct. 16, at 9 a.m. at the Hutchinson Center. The group, which has been meeting regularly since late May, is tentatively slated to wind up its work with the goal of submitting a consensus recommendation to the governor around the end of the year.
