Freeport’s Town Council should deny Seacoast United’s new zoning change request. This latest effort to pave the way for the construction of a 62,000-square-foot building is just an effort to get around the planning board’s November ruling that such a building and business don’t belong in the rural/residential neighborhood.

Seacoast wants the council to change the zoning on the property they hope to buy on Pownal Road to a “Recreational Zone” to permit the construction of their building and their turf fields. “Recreational Zone” is just a euphemism for commercial use and we have sufficient commercially zoned property available in Freeport for a project such as this.

Freeport spent $2.3 million in 2011 to purchase and develop the Hunter Road fields. The goal of the project was to provide outdoor recreation for our children. We do not need a zoning change on that property – the fields are already there for the benefit of our town. The Pownal Road fields were purchased with bond funds approved for outdoor recreation. We should not change that voter intended use to accommodate commercial indoor facilities.

Finally, this entire Seacoast Project is a bad deal for the town. We are essentially being asked to give them the land, lease them property for turf fields for practically nothing and get some use out of their building and fields – all this when we just built our own beautiful town fields. Bad Deal.

Florence Lusk
Freeport