Freedom—December 17, 2024—A report on improvements that were impermissibly made to structures at Wabanaki Campground will be made public at the Freedom Planning Board meeting this Thursday night, according to the Town Administrator.
The official declined to say more about the report, which was written by the town’s new Zoning Officer. But several people familiar with the campground property said the structures in question are the “hutnicks” that have been at the center of an environmental review by the Planning Board that began in March and is ongoing.
Campground owner Mark Salvati applied to the Planning Board for approval to improve and expand the rustic “hutnicks” so they can be sold as part of a 77-member cooperative campground. The board has not approved the plan and is scheduled to review revisions to it on Thursday night, including a recalculation of the percentage of impermeable surfaces in the shorefront setback.
Salvati’s site plan application described the “hutnicks” in March as “Wooden tent, sinks are outside…not insulated or heated, and not connected to a septic system.” Pictures of the structures taken last week show metal roofs, doors, finished walls and Tyvek-like material cladding the exterior.
The pictures, taken from Ossipee Lake Road by a town resident, were sent to Planning Board Chair Linda Mailhot, who forwarded them to Bryan Fontaine, Freedom’s new Zoning Officer.
Fontaine said the buildings shown in the pictures were “not in the town’s system” and no permits had been issued, according to correspondence obtained by Ossipee Lake Alliance through a public documents request. Fontaine inspected the buildings on Monday.
As word of the inspection circulated last week, the town clarified that the inspection was not open to the public, including town board members who have been working on the “hutnick” application since March.
Complicating the “hutnick” matter is that they were supposed to be converted to campsites in 2001 to settle legal issues with the state. Two of the structures were to be removed immediately that year as part of the construction of a new septic system.
Zoning violations at Wabanaki have been known to town officials since at least February, 2003, when they were flagged in Planning Board meeting minutes. In July that year, Salvati told the board he would provide a list of “whatever has been built since 2001.”
After more than a year passed without a list, Ossipee Lake Alliance asked Salvati and Gary Williams, the Zoning Officer at the time, for an update.
Williams did not respond, but Salvati did, saying the violations were “decks constructed on trailers.” He said he “provided each deck request to the building department.”
In response to a public information request last month, the town said it did not find any “deck requests” in its records, but it did find a February, 2023, email from Salvati to Williams asking for his help in addressing zoning violations in preparation for converting to a cooperative.
“I fully understand that any past work on buildings/decks which should have been obtained permits (sic) would either have to be retroactively permitted or allowed to remain as grandfathered,” Salvati wrote to Williams.
“In this instance, I throw myself at the mercy of your department. I have defended many like individuals in the past and understand the process,” said Salvati, who is an attorney. There is no town record of a response from Williams.
Salvati’s email briefly surfaced this summer, more than a year later, when it was discussed at the Planning Board’s August 15 meeting. A letter from the Planning Board to Williams and the Select Board asking if they planned to address the violations was not answered.
As part of the state’s requirements to obtain registration to sell shares in the cooperative, Salvati must attest that he is in compliance with all town regulations. The Select Board last week declined to comment on the town’s role in that attestation, saying questions should be directed to the Planning Board.
If the conversion is approved, the property will have a manager who is overseen by a board of directors elected from among the shareholders. Trailers, RVs and Park Models owned by shareholders will be allowed to be parked permanently on the property.