What is wrong with Blue Hill? (Freeport, Ogunquit: home, to live in, zoning)

[CoastalMaine]

About an hour and a fifteen Tim, give or take a little bit.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by CoastalMaine

About an hour and a fifteen Tim, give or take a little bit.

Thanks. I have to go up that way this week to Union and was going to stop in Camden. I figured if it was at all close I'd check it out but I don't think I'll make the 2 1/2 hour extra trip.

[island mermaid]

From RT 1 in Bucksport, take RT 15 towards Blue Hill. It's about 30 - 45 minutes from there. 2 lane rd, pretty quiet this time of year. It's a real pretty, quaint little town. Kind of like Wiscasset w/ less traffic.

[CoastalMaine]

Maineah, it's very scenic and quite charming. If you can plan it, make time to stop and have lunch in Blue Hill. There's some really nice restaurants there. Well worth the drive if you can work it into the day.

[banjoseth]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

Wow! One of the funniest posts I have read in this forum for a long time. Sounds like a post typically written by someone who doesn't live here, has no real relationship with here, and feels somehow empowered to pontificate about everything because everything should be the way it is under whatever rock he or she hides under most of the time.

The fact is that there is NO historic district in Blue Hill. What you see is what you get and if it changes somehow, what you get is what you will see.

...

I think I made a contribution to the town's downtown. I think the Legion Hall renovation is a contribution to the town also, and suggest that you learn a bit more about how and what was done before launching a baseless and irresponsible attack on persons and actions about which you know nothing.

As a matter of fact I was born in town, attended both the Consolidated School and George Stevens, my mother went to junior high in what's now the Legion Hall before she attended GSA, my immediate family have owned our (historic) house for well over a century and we are descended from the town's co-founder Joseph Wood; the guy after whom Peters Point is named; and Hinckleys of Hinckley Ridge, etc. We also built two of the earliest summer houses in town the 1880s, one of them on Parker Point.

I bow to nobody in my "nativeness", nor will I accept "baseless and irresponsible attack" as a characterization of my post. I also contributed to the restoration fund so yes, I think I am entitled to complain about the job they're doing. And Blue Hill DOES have a historic district! Your ignorance of this is in direct proportion to your obvious contempt for what it contains.

[banjoseth]

The "Pason Fischer" (sic) house IS on the National Register, actually. As such it (the Parson Fisher House) is entitled to protection from projects receiving federal funding if they endanger its historic features / aesthetic qualities, such as the sewer extension.

[Maine Writer]

I found the historical society in a quick Google.
Blue Hill Historical Society

[Maineah]

You're talking about a building, try a whole town! Freeport became an outdoor mall for crying out loud and no one got all that upset about it. Things change... not always for the better.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by banjoseth

The "Pason Fischer" (sic) house IS on the National Register, actually. As such it (the Parson Fisher House) is entitled to protection from projects receiving federal funding if they endanger its historic features / aesthetic qualities, such as the sewer extension.

I stand corrected. Both the center of village itself and the Parson Fisher house ARE in the historic register. I never knew that before.

Strange though. Strange that the town has never seen fit to codify exactly what the presence in the historic register means. The town's historic district was established and added to the register in 1980. Yet there are no ordinances or other guidelines to use in either the restoration of period buildings nor in new construction. Perhaps this codification of "Federal and Greek Revival" architecture, which is the basis of the inclusion of the village in the historic register can be a meaningful cause for you to pursue in your excitement over "nativeness".

It is laudable that you were able to contribute to the funding for the renovation of the Legion hall. It is unfortunate that you were not able to actively particpate in guiding the scope and application of that renovation. Sinice you are now so unhappy about it, I wonder why you don't take it up with the board that directs the Legion in Blue Hill itself, rather than complain here.

Since you have such an extensive history in Blue Hill, I suspect that you know well what is "wrong" with Blue Hill already. I think the simple answer is, "nothing is wrong with Blue Hill. They like things the way they are, and the less external regulation applied the better."

But if you really want to complain about it, why not go to the TOWN. Who knows? Maybe your concern will strike a chord that will bring forth a whole new wave of architectural and domestic regulation in the town.

[banjoseth]

Acadian Lion, meaning no disrespect, but I like Blue Hill the way it is. It's the people who are changing its character willy-nilly at present who clearly neither like it the way it is nor love and respect the old town. And if you'd had to move away in order to find a job you might find it difficult to make it back home yourself during the week to attend Planning Board or other meetings that are for some reason never scheduled on weekends.

As for the specific issue of the Legion Hall "renovations" - The columns, structurally speaking, are not only aesthetically unpleasing but overbuilt for what they support. Ergo, they are more expensive than they need to be. Posts of brick would have been perfectly acceptable if they'd chosen brick that matched the building - as was done across the street when the Library was added onto - and had they been considerably narrower.

The irony of having no local oversight or meaningful regulation of changes to buildings in the Historic District is that people who are trained in these matters could have pointed out in this case where arriving at a more aesthetically pleasing result would also have been more economical. But nobody wants to listen. Of course I'm frustrated. There's few places besides forums like this where somebody whose circumstances don't allow them to be 'on the spot' constantly CAN vent about issues that bother them.