VASSALBORO — Town officials still aren’t sure whether a road for a 10-lot subdivision was built according to local and court specifications.

That’s holding up action on a planned four-lot expansion to the subdivision off Riverside Drive.

Planning Board members on Tuesday postponed action on Leo Barnett’s application to expand his subdivision. It was the second postponement in as many months.

Planning Board members and Code Enforcement Officer Daniel Feeney said they don’t think the paved road is adequate to meet a court judgment or road standards.

The town previously sued Barnett, saying the road was not built where he told the Planning Board it would be. A resulting court judgment required that the road be relocated along the center of a right of way outlined in project plans.

Board member Leon Cummings asked Barnett in January for the original road plans, hoping that would help resolve the question. He objected to Barnett bringing the plans to Tuesday’s meeting, instead of submitting them in advance, so the old and new plans could be compared.

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No one was sure how much the road varied from the original plan. Figures cited for the claimed misalignment within the 50-foot right of way ranged from 11 inches to 11 feet.

The old and new sets of plans were not drawn on the same scale. Board members agreed that Barnett’s surveyor, James Moore, could adjust the map scales, compare the plans and send the board a letter.

Assuming the road is now properly aligned in the right of way, board members said the letter should say that “the center line of the road as drawn is the center of the 50-foot right of way.”

Cummings further objected to the plans, saying the road does not have two-foot sloping shoulders in certain areas, as the Planning Board required when the original subdivision was approved.

Barnett said he will build shoulders where needed, when weather and ground conditions permit.

Feeney repeatedly said that the paving contractor should not have left a hump at the entrance to the subdivision, but the board did not require a correction.

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Road Commissioner Eugene Field visited the subdivision with Feeney and Barnett and sent the Planning Board copies of a 2008 report and a shorter summary of the recent meeting. A letter from Field was one of the board’s January requirements.

Applications to enlarge subdivisions require the board to find that town services will not be overburdened.

In other business Tuesday, the board accepted recommended ordinance amendments presented by East Vassalboro Water Co. co-owner Donald Robbins aimed at protecting the company’s water supply.

Feeney will find out whether the Planning Board or the selectmen should schedule a public hearing on the draft amendments as a step toward presenting them to voters at the June town meeting.


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