Freedom—January 20, 2025—What began almost a year ago as a site plan application to expand five small structures at Wabanaki Campground grew unnoticed but in plain sight into a significant business expansion that was on the cusp of being approved without required reviews.

That was the conclusion on Thursday night when Freedom’s Planning Board met to consider the fourth set of “hutnik” expansion plans submitted by campground agent Horizons Engineering.

Campground owner/manager Mark Salvati wants to improve the “hutnik” structures and add them to his inventory of “units” available for sale as part of a proposed conversion to a cooperative campground controlled by shareholders.

But on Thursday night, Planning Board Vice-Chair Anne Cunningham said she was reluctant to move any further with the application, submitted almost a year ago, without establishing “what it is we are actually being asked to approve.”

Cunningham said she spent several days reviewing the various sets of plans and saw that each time Horizons made changes to the “hutnik” designs, changes were also made to the rest of the property.

She offered Campsite #10 as an example. Horizons’s March plan showed the site was vacant. In the April plan it had a parking space, and in October the parking space was enlarged and an RV and large deck were added, taking up most of the site.

In another example, campsite #39 showed an RV and stairs in March. In April the site was renumbered to #37, and a deck and parking space were added. In January the plan showed the RV was relocated and enlarged, the parking space had been moved, and a notation stated “Future deck with stairs 280 sq. ft.”

Cunningham said none of the changes she reviewed had anything to do with the “hutniks.”

“If we approve this application, we won’t just be approving the ‘hutniks’,” she concluded.

Les Babb, the Select Board’s representative to the Planning Board, agreed, saying the discussion about the hutniks had strayed.

“We should have stopped from the first time we saw this and said, well, your application’s only for ‘hutniks,'” he said.

“We didn’t do it, and they didn’t do it…I mean, our biggest asset for the town is the lake. That’s something we have to protect,” Babb said, adding that he hoped the applicant would return with a revised application.

Conditions Attached
After further discussion, the board accepted the “hutnik” plan as “complete,” contingent on a new application being submitted with only the “hutniks” and immediate surroundings shown. The board will also obtain a legal opinion on “common ownership” issues as they pertain to the plan.

If a new application is submitted within 65 days, the board will review it and rule on the merits. If a plan is not submitted, the board must deny the application “without prejudice,” meaning it can be resubmitted at a later date.

In an email to Ossipee Lake Alliance, campground owner/manager Salvati said he was “happy about the decision” as “a path forward,” and will be filing a new “hutnik” plan “as soon as ready.” He added that if the “hutnik” plan is approved he will file a “new petition for RVs, decks and stormwater management.”

Concerns Expressed in July
Concerns about the consequences of reviewing the “hutnik” proposal using documents showing the entire property were first surfaced last July by Freedom resident Susan Hoople.

“If you sign down here,” Hoople said, pointing to the document as she stood before the Planning Board, “this could get recorded at the Registry as a full subdivision plan and be submitted to the State Attorney General’s office with their [co-op] conversion application as being approved by the town.”

Wabanaki agent Bryan Berlind responded that the document was a commercial site plan application, not a subdivision application. Linda Mailhot, who became Board Chair in March when Wabanaki’s plan was submitted, said she agreed with Berlind and asked that the discussion move on.

But board member Brian Taylor echoed Hoople’s concerns about what the board was being asked to approve. Taylor also said the board had not validated Horizons Engineering’s claim that its materials are an accurate reflection of the subdivision plan DES approved in 2001.

The discussion was left unresolved after the hearing was continued to October.

In December, Salvati was cited by the town for having 23 zoning violations that could subject him to fines of up to $62,975. Also in December, the owner conceded that he built Hutnik #5 while the Planning Board was still debating whether to approve the work.

He said he “misspoke” when he twice told the board that no construction was taking place.

Public Comment
As she has done since August, Board Chair Mailhot on Thursday limited public comments to the “hutniks” and cut off speakers who attempted to ask questions.

Campground abutter Maureen Raynes asked if she could show the board a 30-second video of environmental damage on the property but was denied. Raynes told Ossipee Lake Alliance she was “dismayed” by the Chair’s continued “narrow focus” in regard to public comments.

Freedom resident Paul Elie asked Mailhot to clarify which storm benchmark CMA Engineering used in its third-party review of the site plan. Mailhot said she didn’t recall, but it was based on the zoning ordinance and she was “not going to do back and forth questioning.” Elie said he would withhold his second question.

Jay Tropea said he is a Wabanaki seasonal camper concerned about the expenses that owner/manager Salvati has been accruing in the Planning Board proceedings.

“These delays…these costs are really mounting, and they’re going to be coming back to me in my HOA payments,” the camper said.

“Our campground is designed for middle and low income families. These delays are unsettling for everyone, and people are starting to think of bailing.”

“What will you do then, buy us out?” he asked.

After a board member asked why Tropea used the term “HOA,” which refers to co-op and condominium common charges, Salvati said Tropea meant to say “rent.”