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Planning Board accepts applicant’s 30% expansion calculations for 15 Atlantic Circle, conditions verification by code officer
Summary
After a ZBA remand, the board reviewed contested floor-area and volume calculations for a Resource Protection/Shoreland property at 15 Atlantic Circle; the board accepted the applicant’s supplemental measurements but required the Code Enforcement Officer to verify numbers at building-permit stage.
The Planning Board reviewed a remand from the Zoning Board of Appeals on March 9 to determine whether a proposed demolition and reconstruction at 15 Atlantic Circle complies with Kennebunk’s 30% limits on floor-area and volume expansion in Resource Protection and Shoreland Overlay districts.
Attorney Mary Costigan representing the owner said the applicant used the Maine DEP (Chapter 1000) definitions to produce comparable floor-area and volume calculations, and architect Mike Bedell explained the team used 3D modeling (exported from AutoCAD/DataCAD into SketchUp) to measure roof planes and compute volume. Abutter counsel Cameron Ferrante challenged the submittal, pointing to numerous discrepancies between annotated plan dimensions, assessor records and the submitted area/volume worksheets, and urging the board to apply definitions consistently (for example, whether porches, roof overhangs, carports and basements count toward floor area or volume).
Bedell returned with added foundation dimensions and explained some discrepancies: foundations and floors do not always stack squarely, stair openings change floor-area totals between levels, and basement wall plates push the headroom over seven feet in places, meaning the basement could be finished as habitable space. Town staff said code enforcement will independently review calculations at the building-permit stage.
After discussion the board found the supplemental documentation substantial enough to support the applicant’s calculation approach for the proposed expansion and voted to accept the figures with an explicit condition that the Code Enforcement Officer confirm the calculations and that the building permit be applied to the Planning Board file (Motion: R. Metcalf; Second: J. Vance; Vote: 5–0).
The board did not create new findings of fact beyond those in the prior approval but required the code-review step as a condition of approval.
