Kittery Point Yacht Club dock plan paused in New Castle: Here's why
NEW CASTLE — The Kittery Point Yacht Club's bid to gain town approval for a new dock on the Piscataqua River’s back channel has been paused by a New Castle board at the club's request.
Club leaders are planning to work with project opponents and residents on addressing safety around the property along the Route 1B causeway, addressing criticism made against the proposal since the winter. The proposal is presently tied up in the New Castle Zoning Board of Adjustment review and public hearing process.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment voted Wednesday night to continue the proposal to its Sept. 17 meeting in order to collaborate with the 68-year-old club on safety solutions.
The club released a statement Thursday regarding the proposal's continuance through Dave Severance, treasurer for the club and a board of directors member.
“We believe that there may be opportunities for the club to work together with the community in an effort to improve safety along the Route 1B causeway,” the club stated. “We felt that it would be better for all involved to take additional time to explore these opportunities and provide a clear perspective to all who may not have a clear factual understanding of the scope of our proposed project.”
The Kittery Point Yacht Club first proposed a 150-foot-long dock in the river’s back channel off Goat Island, a plan that has since been scaled back. The dock would be built off land purchased by the club from an abutter in 2022, jutting out in the waterway for use by the club’s student sailors and staff to avoid the potentially dangerous sailing conditions off the club’s current dock on the river.
Club members and proposal proponents have stated in hearings the new dock doesn’t mean the club is expanding. Rather, the new dock would evenly distribute students and staff and offer a safer voyage along the back channel and help further students’ knowledge of sailing.
The club's intention is to offer a second, safer access point to the water, according to Severance and Doug Pinciaro, the club dockmaster and a board of directors member.
Critics of the plan feel the dock would obstruct their views of the back channel and compromise safety along the causeway, arguing foot and vehicular traffic would increase, thereby increasing the risk of a vehicular accident involving pedestrians. Some have claimed a dock off Goat Island would harm navigation in the back channel.
In January, the Zoning Board of Adjustment approved a motion to grant the club the necessary variances for the proposed dock. However in February, the town Select Board stepped in and asked for a hearing to appeal the matter, alleging the Zoning Board of Adjustment erred in granting the variances.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment agreed to the Select Board’s appeal, setting off the rehearing process that has now spanned several months.
“We look forward to working with the community to find an amicable solution,” the Kittery Point Yacht Club’s Thursday statement added.
The dock would be installed between November 15 and March 15, 2025 to avoid disruption to the sturgeon population in the back channel, according to May 21 minutes of a Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing on the matter.
Aside from the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s stamp of approval, the proposal would need to be signed off on by New Castle’s Planning Board, in addition to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kittery Point Yacht Club dock plan paused in New Castle: Here's why
