Island condo hotel project stalled in court
The islanders who have been fighting a proposed condo-hotel development on Great Diamond Island have won a victory in court to halt the project.
The Maine Superior Court in Portland has determined that a vote in 2007 by an island residential group to approve the project was invalid, according to a press release from the Friends of Great Diamond Island, the opposition group.
Portland-based developer David Bateman, with New York-based hotel-management company Hart Hotels, proposed turning Great Diamond Island's old army barracks into condos as part of the current Diamond Cove luxury community, which Bateman originally developed in the 1980s. His intention was for investors to buy the units and rent them to visitors. Bateman has claimed the updated development could generate $60,000 in property tax revenue for the city and lower islanders' property taxes.
Bateman could not be reached for comment before deadline.
The Friends filed the suit in 2008 against the Diamond Cove Homeowners Association and The Inn at Diamond Cove LLC, the developing company, to invalidate a controversial vote by the association to allow the Fort McKinley barracks to be redeveloped into a hotelminium, as it's been called. The Friends argued that the city of Portland, which took ownership of the property six years ago for unpaid taxes and supported the hotel development, inappropriately influenced the vote, according to the lawsuit.
According to the release, the court "agreed with The Friends' contention of highly irregular voting procedures associated with the vote by homeowners to approve the inn." The release lists some of these irregularities as a discrepancy between the number of votes and the number of proxies, two votes counted for one unit, and the failure of proxies standing in for voting members to appear at meetings to cast their votes, which were still counted.
Meanwhile, the Friends are arguing that the city of Portland owes back assessment dues on the property totaling nearly $1 million, according to the release.
This recent court decision follows another finding last fall by the Business and Consumer Court in West Bath on a different suit filed by the Friends against the city of Portland to stop the project. That decision found the city's zoning decision allows the development, a finding the Friends had challenged. However, Friends member and attorney William Robitzek says because the homeowners association vote has been found invalid, the project is effectively stalled for now.
Great Diamond Island in Casco Bay has fewer than 100 year-round residents, and the opposition to the project has centered on whether the development would ruin the island's sleepy, out-of-the-way feel.
"This is clearly a victory for anyone who cherishes the island way of life," Robitzek says.
Timothy Norton, the attorney for the Friends group, says the decision opens the door for the homeowners association to find a more appropriate use for the redevelopment of these properties "consistent with the character of the island."
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