Biddeford planning board tables UNE Pier site plan decision

Numerous people spoke both for and against a proposed year round marine science center research pier the University of New England is proposing to build on its Biddeford campus during a public hearing before the Biddeford Planning Board on Wednesday, June 18.

The issue on whether to consider the university’s application for Preliminary Plan - Site Plan and Shoreland Zoning Review was tabled.

The decision to table was made in order to schedule a second site walk of the proposed location for the pier - at 11 Hills Beach Road next to the Arthur P. Girard Marine Science Center - and surrounding area. Prior to a presentation on the pier by UNE representatives and a public hearing, Planning Board member Roch Angers said he was upset that he and several other board members were expected to participate in the review process without having been able to attend the previous site walk held last week. After hearing from the public, board member Larry Patoine - who attended the meeting via telephone - moved to table the matter which was unanimously approved. A date for the second site walk was not set at Wednesday’s meeting.

Although the issue was tabled, city staff comments state the project either meets standard or the standard is non-applicable for all aspects of the Site Plan/Design criteria and the Shoreland Zoning Land Use Standards, according to a June 6 memo to the Planning Board by City Planner David Galbraith. According to the memo, “Staff finds that the application satisfies the City’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance and Site Plan criteria.” In the memo, staff also recommends approving the university’s request for three waivers, two regarding runoff and one regarding slopes.

Prior to the public hearing, UNE’s Vice President of Operations Alan Thibeault and Tom Saucier, president of Site Design Associates, an engineering firm with an office in Topsham, gave presentations regarding the proposed pier on behalf of the university. UNE wants a permanent, year-round pier to replace its temporary, seasonal pier, which must be removed each winter and put back in each spring.

The suggested pier on the Saco River would include: an approximately 130-foot-long walkway extending from shore and an 80-foot by 23-foot pier head section; a floating dock system; an 80-foot by 5-foot gangway; and an upland access road connecting the existing road at the marine science research center to the proposed pier, including associated site grading, drainage, and stormwater management features.

This proposed pier, which has been in the works for about 10 years, became fraught in controversy last year when the city’s Harbormaster Paul Lariviere and Assistant Harbormaster Randy Desmaris, were taken out of the decision-making process on whether to approve a permit for the pier. Former City Manager James Bennett said in a July 10, 2024, press release that the two men were removed as administrative hearing officers on the matter “to ensure that the application was reviewed in an unbiased process so as not to violate the University’s due process rights.” Engineer Wayne Duffet of TEC Associates was appointed to act as harbormaster regarding the pier.

The majority of those who spoke said they didn’t oppose a permanent pier at UNE but they objected to the location. Proponents of the pier, which included UNE students, staff and faculty members, among others, spoke about the importance of a permanent pier and how it would help research.

Tricia Thibodeau, a UNE professor in the marine sciences department, spoke in support of the pier.

“The establishment of UNE’s year-round pier will greatly expand my capacity to conduct research in the Saco River estuary which will greatly benefit the Biddeford community,” she said.

Thibodeau is a plankton ecologist and her research involves monitoring plankton weekly off Ram Island. The temporary pier, which is only in the water for six months, impedes her ability to conduct her research, and she said a permanent, year-round pier would benefit her and other marine science researchers, both faculty and students.

Erin Anderson, a UNE marine science master’s student, said she studies the ecosystem in Saco Bay. Like Thibodeau, she said the seasonal pier makes her ability to conduct research more difficult and a year-round pier would allow “both my research and those of my peers to become more robust.”

Phil Shapiro, a part-time UNE employee, said marine science and the pier are important for the economy. The marine science department, which he said is one of the best in the nation, is “important to students and for the Biddeford and Southern Maine economy … so the pier is necessary.” Students and faculty, he said, “need to get to the water 12 months of the year.”

Many opponents of the project wore T-shirts that read Location! Location! Location! on the front.

“Everyone wants UNE to have a pier,” said John Shafer, the former chair of the Harbor Commission. “The point of contention is the location.”

Negative effects on navigation and commercial marine industry were among the concerns regarding the proposed pier’s location, but at the center of the issue is the seven moorings that are in the immediate area of UNE’s proposed site would be negatively affected if the pier went there, Schafer said.

Because the university’s plan does not address where the affected moorings are supposed to go and who is going to move the moorings, he said, UNE’s application is incomplete and shouldn't be voted on.

“What’s going to happen to the moorings?” was a question also asked by Tom Hatch. If the proposed site is approved the moorings would have to be moved. “It’s not just moving it 20 feet,” he said. “You have to relearn how the tides affect your boat.”

“Everybody here wants a pier for UNE,” Walter Alexander, like all those speaking against the proposed location, said. However, the site recommended by the harbormaster, number 8, would be a better alternative, he said. It’s an “area that has deeper water and is closer to shore.”

“I don’t have a boat, so I don’t have a dog in this fight, per se,” said Kathy Russell. “Let UNE have its pier, but put it in a location that makes sense. The decision here tonight isn’t pier versus no pier, it’s where do they put the pier.”

Dina Mendros is a freelance writer and lives in Saco.