It’s official: The Lazy River Campground in Gardiner will soon be excavating the passive water feature implied by its name. Last week the Gardiner Planning Board voted to issue a negative declaration on significant impacts of the project under State Environmental Quality Review, and then to approve the site plan, subject to some conditions. The proposed expansion of the resort’s water park will consist of a shallow loop pool with a slow current, designed to be enjoyed by swimmers while lounging on an inner tube or other buoyant water toys.
Among the conditions imposed on the go-ahead was demonstrating that the new feature will not exacerbate the levels of noise emanating from Lazy River, which have been a persistent sore point with neighbors during recent investigations by municipal officials designed to develop more effective noise-control regulation within the town’s zoning code. The Planning Board has specifically requested that the resort owners upgrade their noise monitoring system to include limiters that would automatically shut off music amplifiers if the decibel level exceeds legal limits.
Board member Carol Richman abstained from the otherwise unanimous vote, saying that she wanted to wait until the applicants “first find a remedy for their violations.” She reminded her colleagues that, in addition to the noise issue, Lazy River is many years in arrears in applying for permit renewals from the town and paying the annual permit fees. After the vote, board chair Paul Colucci instructed the applicants’ representative to “Have the owner contact me about the fees.”
New applications aren’t supposed to be acted upon if code violations exist. The board should have had the applicant take care of the outstanding violation issues before approving a new application.
From Zoning Enforcement, James A. Coon Local Government Technical Series: “any new permits or
certificates related to the same work should be denied from the date on which the violation is first determined to exist until the matter [is] resolved.”