During Wednesday’s Planning Board meeting, not a single member of the public spoke in favor of the proposed location for a research-docking pier that the University of New England wants to build on the Saco River.
Although several people told the board that they supported the idea of UNE building a new pier, they also said the proposed location for the pier is a bad plan and would adversely impact public recreation, nearby mooring owners and commercial fishing operations near the mouth of the river.
During the public comment period, which lasted nearly an hour, several people also complained about what they said is “a lack of transparency” about the project and the university’s closed-ranks approach to building the pier in their preferred location.
Alan Thibeault, the university’s vice president of operations, introduced the project to the board, stressing that prior boards “approved the pier concept, design and location” as part of the university’s overall master plan.
Thibeault told the board that UNE has spent many years planning and designing the proposed pier, considering nine different locations along the shoreline near the school’s Marine Sciences Center building.
“We are here tonight to listen,” Thibeault said during his opening remarks, pointing out that project has already been approved by the Saco River Corridor Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
But many residents saw Wednesday’s meeting as their first opportunity for a bite at the apple for public comment and feedback of the project, which includes a 130-foot approach pier with an 80 by 20-foot pier head jutting out into the channel.
Former city councilor Kyle Noble who lives near UNE’s Biddeford campus, described UNE’s application as “incomplete.” Are you going to side with the public or UNE?” Noble asked the board. “If they were good neighbors as they so often claim, they would have designed this differently.”
Thibeault told the board that the university’s current research vessel is only 32-feet long, despite prior talk of a new, much larger vessel of more than 60-feet in length.
Dan Chadbourne, Saco’s former harbormaster, told the board, “You don’t build an 80-foot pier for a 32-foot boat.”
Chadbourne said he thinks the university has needed a more adequate pier for a long time, going back decades to when the school was St. Francis College. “The location is the issue,” he said. “Where they want it is gonna catch ice, and they’re gonna be disappointed when they are unable to turn because of inadequate depth in that area.”
Although Thibeault told the board that mooring impacts would be minimal and that the university had tried to obtain maps of private moorings, several local mooring owners approached the podium one-by-one to say that their moorings would be adversely impacted and that UNE has done nothing to contact them.
Walter Alexander of Biddeford is the son of former harbormaster Marshall Alexander who was the city’s harbormaster for 37 years before retiring a few years ago and then died late last year.
The younger Alexander told the board: “My father was the one who gave UNE what he thought was a much better plan for their pier, closer and parallel to the shore,” he said.
“The university has deep pockets, and they have threatened the city with litigation if they don’t get the location they want,” Alexander said. “There has been a lack of transparency, and this whole thing has turned into little more than a big dock contest.”
Peter Mourmouras, the owner of Saco Bay Tackle, told the board that the proposed pier would essentially close off a very popular fishing area that generates revenue for the local economy from chartered recreational fishing trips.
John Schafer, the former chair of Biddeford’s Harbor Commission, has been an outspoken critic of the project. He reminded the board that Biddeford’s former city manager “silenced both the city harbormaster and assistant harbormaster” from the review process last year. “Since then, there has been no local knowledge evaluating this proposal,” Schafer said. “The university has twice threatened to sue the city, as outlined in letters from February 2024 and again in March 2024.”
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Other representatives from the university attended Wednesday’s meeting, seated together in the back row, including the school’s senior attorney and a public relations representative. None of them addressed the board.
“There has been a lack of transparency,
— Walter Alexander
and this whole thing has turned
into little more than a big dock contest.”
At the end of the public comment period, several board members said they felt overwhelmed by the complexity of the project, including the school’s submission that is reportedly more than 1,000 pages of information.
Board members voted unanimously to conduct a site walk of the area, and a possible boat tour of the river area at low tide, stressing that the public would be notified and invited to participate.
Board chair Alexa Plotkin asked the university to provide some more details, saying the board would appreciate more than just “four or five days” to review additional information.
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