I was surprised to hear at the Nov. 16 Waterville City Council meeting that BACAS withdrew their plans for Sacred Heart on account of not wanting to go through the legal process of getting their plans approved (“Waterville officials continue to wrestle with future of former Sacred Heart Church,  Nov. 17).

Perhaps the partners in BACAS ought to read up on the ordinances and Comprehensive Plan they were seeking to develop under and they would have seen their plan couldn’t pass muster. Their understanding of the process has been hazy at best, and never was that evident more than the council meeting, in which they only offered personal slights and accusations against the board and presented nothing to suggest that the board had failed in their duties interpreting the ordinances and Comprehensive Plan.

Had they thought that, they could have brought the incorrect recommendations of the Planning Board to the council and asked councilors to override, but they chose not to do so, leading me to believe they are flinging baseless personal attacks around in nothing more than one last temper tantrum about the project.

I am sorry the Sacred Heart property continues to sit abandoned and unused. I am not sorry that the residential character of the neighborhood has been rightly preserved.

 

Rien Finch

Waterville