Court deals another setback to contentious midcoast park

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 11, 2024

The years-long effort to build a waterfront park in Boothbay Harbor will drag on even longer after a court recently ruled that the town’s planning board must reconsider two key approvals it originally gave to the project. As it’s currently planned, the contested Eastside Waterfront Park on Atlantic Avenue would feature a pavilion, a concrete splash pad for kids, grassy space and a working wharf for lobstermen, among other amenities. However, after backers of the park first began pursuing it in 2019, they’ve gotten mired in permitting and legal disputes with the owners of a neighboring property, marking yet another lengthy and contentious struggle over a development project on Maine’s coast.