Green light for Great Diamond development
Portland city councilors last night approved a controversial proposal to turn the former Fort McKinley barracks on Great Diamond Island into a $6.5 million condo hotel.
Councilors voted 6-2 in favor of the proposed 32-unit Inn on Diamond Cove, which would be made up of condo units that are owned and then rented out, with the stipulation that condo guests and owners are not allowed to drive cars or golf carts outside of the Diamond Cove neighborhood, according to the Portland Press Herald. The council needed to approve the project because it falls outside the island's current zoning rules. (For more on the proposed development, read "Island divided" in the Sept. 22 issue of Mainebiz.)
With council approval out of the way, developer David Bateman now has to contend with a lawsuit filed by a group of Great Diamond Island residents who oppose the development.
While those in favor of the hotel say the project will rehabilitate the dilapidated barracks, create jobs and generate property tax revenue for the city, opponents say the hotel will disrupt island life, according to the paper.
A group called The Friends of Great Diamond Island in August filed a lawsuit in Cumberland County Superior Court against developer David Bateman, asking a judge to overturn a 2007 vote by the Diamond Cove Homeowners Association that approved the project. Bateman developed the original Diamond Cove neighborhood in the 1980s and the Portland Harbor Hotel in Portland's Old Port. The group alleges that the city, which owns the barracks, improperly cast 23 votes in favor of the project, according to the lawsuit. The city has denied those claims, and a hearing date for the lawsuit has not been set, according to the Press Herald.
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