York Town News
Cinema demolition, Pop's renovation: beginning a new chapter in York Beach
By Jennifer L. Saunders
THE END OF AN ERA. After 78 seasons of being the place in town to go to catch a movie, the end of the York Beach Cinema came on Halloween, Tuesday, Oct. 31, when demolition of the 19th-century building that housed the theatre got underway. The cinema closed forever on Saturday of Labor Day weekend as plans moved forward to replace it with a multi-use commercial building to house a function hall, retail and office spaces and hotel suites.
Photo by Steve Rasche
YORK BEACH - After months upon months of revision, discussion and planning, a new era has begun for this seaside community.
On Tuesday, Oct. 31, construction for one of two high-profile projects in York Beach officially got underway as the Victorian-era York Beach Cinema building was razed.
Throughout the day on Tuesday, construction crews were at work demolishing the building, which began its history as an ice house in the 1800s, and served as the town's one cinema for the past 78 years before closing this summer.
Last month, the Planning Board gave final approval to a plan proposed by Brent Merritt of the Union Bluff Hotel to demolish the cinema and replace it with a new multi-use commercial building. The Planning Board signed the plans for the Union Bluff project and another key York Beach proposal, the renovation of the former Victorian hotel, the Atlantic House, which was home to Pop's Shell Shack in the past decade, at its most recent meeting on Oct. 26.
The plans for the former site of the cinema include a three-story building with retail and office space, a 250-seat function hall and eight hotel suites. Due to parking limitations in the beach, the plan also includes shuttle service from an off-site lot on Ridge Road.
Town Planner Steve Burns confirmed that pre-construction meetings were held this week with both the design teams for the Union Bluff and Atlantic House projects now that the plans have been signed.
"I believe the physical work on the Atlantic House project will begin next week," Burns said Tuesday.
Another major project for a York Beach Victorian, the renovation of the Kearsarge House, is not set to begin at this time, Burns said.
The Planning Board's most recent meeting was a work session and included few discussions on applications, as the focus was on state-mandated changes to the Shoreland Overlay District, locally-proposed amendments to the town's Site Plan and Subdivision Regulations and a report from the Mount Agamenticus to the Sea Coalition.
However, at the beginning and end of the meeting, the board discussed field changes and signed the plans for some major projects in town, including the two in York Beach. As for field changes, the board postponed action on a request for Highland Farm Phase 1 to amend the vertical road alignment from Route 91 to the subdivision, stating more than a field change was required.
Planning Board member Barrie Munro questioned the postponement of action, as the request had been brought forward to the board previously by the applicant.
"I really don't see any downside to them in terms of safety … or anything else this board is responsible for," Munro said.
As two members were absent, the board was spilt 2 to 2 on the issue, and so it will be reviewed as the application discussion for Highland Farm Phase 2 continues.
The Union Bluff plan was signed with little discussion prior to the meeting's end, but parking provisions for the Atlantic House did require more information from the applicant before that plan could get the formal seal of approval from the board. Those clarifications of the location for the parking, which will be within the bounds of the York's Wild Kingdom property, paved the way to the approval, though Planning Board member Tom Manzi did question approving parking that could, potentially, be paved, given concerns about drainage and flooding in York Beach.
"We asked the applicant for off-site parking for a specific number of vehicles," said Planning Board Chairman Glen MacWilliams. "We did not say what that parking lot had to look like."
While the Atlantic House and Union Bluff projects move forward, the board is also taking a close look at conservation in the Mount Agamenticus region and at new state mandates that could impact the town's Shoreland Overlay District.
York Geographical Information Systems Manager Brett Horr discussed the implications of the new state rules with the aid of shoreland maps he created. The new rules, which include regulations of habitat for inland, wading and waterfowl birds as well as regulating what are described as "highly unstable and unstable" bluffs, must be in place locally in 2007.
The goal of last week's discussion, Horr and Burns said, is to make the board and local residents aware of the potential implications.
In terms of the provisions for birds, "About 99 percent of the areas are already regulated under the current shoreland zoning rules," Horr noted, but added about six or seven parcels would be included that have not been before.
For the regulations on unstable bluffs, Burns noted that the areas along the ocean, specifically Dover Bluff overlooking Long Sands Beach and the Nubble, are larger developed. The new regulations will, however, impact the trend of tearing down smaller or older homes on the bluff to replace them with larger new construction.
"What this new standard says is you get to the top of the bluff and you go back 50 feet," Burns said of the setback regulations for construction, explaining the town's current 100-foot setback allows the bluff height itself to be included in the calculation of the setback from the water. "The big thing there is the tear-downs. … The number of tear-downs in locations like that is pretty big."
Horr added that only one existing lot on Dover Bluff is not yet developed, however the regulation will also apply to certain portions of the York River and of York Harbor as well.
Also at the meeting, representatives from the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission and the Mount Agamenticus to the Sea Conservation Initiative presented summary findings from their recent regional planning grant. Roger Cole and Paul Schumacher detailed the initiative's successes after four years, including ongoing fundraising efforts to preserve land from development and the success of the $10 million capital campaign.
"It speaks volumes about … the community's interest in conservation," Cole said.
Looking to the future, Schumacher pointed out that there are currently 4,800 developed parcels in the Mount A area, but under current zoning, it is only about half-way built out with the potential for another 4,100 housing units.
"Each town has a different priority … but our idea is to figure out what that top priority is and to work with the towns on that," Schumacher said of ongoing discussions with York and the other local communities involved in the initiative.
The Planning Board also approved Site Plan and Subdivision Regulations amendments dealing with field changes, the expiration of conditional approvals, application submittal requirements and low-impact design standards following a public hearing on each proposal. There was no public comment.
"This stuff is important … it has a lot to do with future development in this town, the shape that it takes, the process that is involved, the involvement of the townspeople with respect to what is being proposed and the accountability that is built into all our programs," Munro said, urging more public participation at such meetings. "… These don't get voted on (at the polls), but they have the same status of law that your ordinances do that do get voted on."
For more on the work of the Planning Department, visit www.yorkmaine.org.
