SUN JOURNAL • August 11, 2024
It will be three years this fall that the lakefront on properties on Sebago Lake was transformed from a natural landscape to at least 400 linear feet of riprap lining the shore. That led to a series of shoreland zoning ordinance and unpermitted work violations lodged against the owner of the properties — Auburn businessman Donald Buteau and his real estate holding firm Management Controls LLC, his primary contractor Robert Durant, and Q-Team Tree Service. They are required to remove the majority of the riprap on the shore. A boat ramp will be removed. Plantings must be documented, monitored, and “must be maintained or replaced as necessary to achieve 85% to 90% survival after five full growing seasons.” Some credit the resolution of this shoreland zoning case to the enactment of the bill, signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills in May. “I think this law will make flagrant abuses of Maine’s shoreland zoning less of a ‘cost of doing business’ issue.”