Ellsworth American
Architect, Landowner at Odds Over Scope of Eco-resort Development
By Jacqueline Weaver
December 31, 2008

WINTER HARBOR — A firm that worked on plans for a Schoodic eco-resort said talks with the landowner soured when the firm proposed relocating parts of the project to adjoining areas that already are developed.

Steve Ribble of Ames A/E, an architectural and engineering firm in Bangor, said he’s willing to continue the relationship with Winter Harbor Properties LLC if it agrees to “consensus-based development.”

“We work here and we live here,” he said. “I wasn’t going to do something that was contrary to my word. If it’s not appropriate for the situation, the project, the people, the environment, it would only end up hurting me.”

“It goes back to ‘Can’t we all be friends?’” said Ribble, whose firm on Nov. 6 reached agreement with Winter Harbor Properties on outstanding bills.

Ames A/E had filed a lien against the holding company on Aug. 27 for $49,917.92 in payments as well as additional fees. The matter was settled on Nov. 6.

A spokesman for Winter Harbor Properties, Cecelia Ward, has said the company is currently “refining” the proposal.

Winter Harbor Properties owns 3,300 acres, much of which abuts the Schoodic portion of Acadia National Park.

The company presented a conceptual plan to local residents in May that included a golf course, lodges, homes, nature centers and a green corridor.

Milan-based businessman Bruno Modena and his son, Vittorio Modena, are two of an estimated 20 principals involved in Winter Harbor Properties.

Ribble, who said he has not done any work for the Modenas since May, said he was firm from the beginning that the project had to be something that local residents embraced.

“When people come to this resort and everybody turns up their nose at them or talks down to them, they’re not going to want to come back,” he said.

“If it’s not supported by the local community, what is the long-term success of this thing?” Ribble said.

He said he and other consultants on the project arrived at the conclusion that decentralizing the project — such as locating housing for resort employees in the towns of Winter Harbor and Gouldsboro instead of dormitories on site — would help cultivate local support for the project.

Ribble said it also was suggested that Winter Harbor Properties purchase property at Ocean Wood campground in adjoining Birch Harbor to provide water access and an educational experience for resort guests and other tourists.

“I think our original idea was to put a hotel out there [at Ocean Wood], or something along those lines,” Ribble said. “We also were interested in trying to create a lobster hatchery experience.”

The Ocean Wood property in question includes two lobster pounds, one in good condition and the other in need of restoration.

“We were trying to create a destination for historic interpretation so tourists could see how they do it today and how they did it back in the 1940s,” Ribble said.

Winter Harbor Properties on May 16 signed a five-year option on a portion of the Ocean Wood property owned by Jim Brunton of Westport, Conn.

Under the agreement, a purchase price was to be established within three months. But Brunton is out of the country and was unavailable for comment on whether a price was set.

Ribble said the lien Ames A/E filed against Winter Harbor Properties was “a disagreement that got further than it needed to go.”

In terms of the plan, he said Vittorio Modena was not happy about being told the resort should include development in other areas Winter Harbor Properties does not currently own.

“His first reaction was, ‘I have all of this land and you’re telling me I have to move somewhere else,’” Ribble said.

He said he empathized with the developers’ position, but also believed the viability of the resort hinges on local support.

“I would love to be a part of this project,” Ribble said. “I believe in what we started.”

Michael Saxl of Maine Street Solutions was unavailable for comment on a report that his firm is no longer working on the eco-resort project.

Ward, the spokesman for Winter Harbor Properties, said in an e-mail Monday “we have not made any decisions on the firms that will continue to work with us on this project.”

Marla O’Byrne, president of the nonprofit Friends of Acadia, whose mission is to preserve and protect the national park, said that with the uncertainty about the development team it made more sense for conservation groups to meet with the owners directly.

“We have heard that the landowner has an interest in creating something that is sensitive on this property, but when you look at the plans, it is intensely developed,” she said.

“That is one of the reasons why we say we would like to have a direct conversation with the landowner,” O’Byrne said.

She said conservation groups also are worried that they know little about the principals of Winter Harbor Properties, other than another project in which the family is involved in New Mexico.

Operating under the name San Augustin Ranch LLC, the company has proposed diverting 17 billion gallons of water annually to Texas to reduce the current stress on the water supply of the Rio Grande Basin.

The company promised to provide water by pipeline to supplement or offset the effects on existing uses and new uses.

A group of New Mexico ranchers announced earlier this month they would lobby the Legislature to give the Office of the State Engineer authority over deep-water wells.

The ranchers also emphasized the Cattle Growers and 500 residents of Catron and Socorro counties oppose the proposal, which now calls for drilling deeper wells — 3,000 feet instead of 2,000 feet — and over a wider area.