Related development: former Harbor Commission chairman reveals FBI investigated previous city administration.
University of New England’s president has sued Biddeford city officials after failing to resolve a bitter zoning fight with them, raising the stakes to a new level of confrontation.
James Herbert claims he had no other option to persuade the city to stop allegedly crippling the school’s expansion plans.
The college and city have been mired in a fight over whether the school will be allowed to build a research pier in the Saco River.
The project received the green light from a coastal regulatory board but city officials are delaying its moving forward.
The city has also put in place an order stopping the university from expanding its campus.
“Appeal through the courts is not our preferred path,” Herbert was quoted by Biddeford Buzz.
“However, the city’s actions have left us with no viable alternative to protect the university, our students and the investments we are making in Biddeford.”
The school’s appeal filed in Maine Superior Court comes “after actions by the city that have disrupted approved projects, undermined established regulatory processes and jeopardized significant investments in the community,” school Vice President Sarah Delage said.
“For months the school has tried “to engage city leadership in constructive dialogue, including a proposal to utilize an independent third-party mediator to resolve outstanding issues,” she added.
The lawsuit follows the city zoning board rejecting two permit-denial reconsiderations.
The university said it secured the necessary approvals for projects from city, state, and federal regulatory bodies before Biddeford passed a moratorium on UNE development to review local zoning laws.
“Despite this, the city has taken steps to amend and nullify those approvals in violation of state law and has delayed or halted important university initiatives” school officials said.
Mayor Liam LaFountain told The Maine Wire he couldn’t comment on the school’s claims “as this is a pending legal matter.”
LaFountain may be on Herbert’s s*it list but he’s winning high praise from resigned Harbor Commission Chairman John Schafer.
In an email to LaFountain shared with The Maine Wire, Schafer said he appreciates the mayor’s “transparency” regarding the university that he says was missing under the previous administration in City Hall.
Schafer said he quit the commission because city officials before LaFountain was elected mayor in November had been too cozy with the school.
“After I resigned, an FBI Special Agent based in Boston knocked on my door,” Schafer also disclosed, speculating that government regulators overseeing the school’s building permits may have been cutting corners.
College officials have insisted they received no favorable treatment under LaFountain’s predecessors.
Are they wanting to build some floating windmills to run up and down the river ?