As developer Geoff Bowley drove up to the first public hearing for the nine-home subdivision he wants to build on a Blue Hill blueberry barren, he realized the pushback might be greater than he expected.
Protest signs lined the road. Meeting attendees had made one reading “No blueberries for Sal,” referencing the classic Maine children’s book set nearby.
“I called my wife and told her, ‘I’m walking into a buzzsaw right now,’” he said.
Bowley, a Kennebunk-based developer, bought the 38 acres of former commercial blueberry land on Route 172 in 2023 and proposed high-end homes for the site last year. Public resistance in Blue Hill and neighboring towns has been significant, continuing for months without showing signs of stopping.
The ongoing debate over the project has illustrated the tension that many Maine communities face as they work to address a critical statewide housing shortage while trying to protect cherished natural resources. It has also demonstrated how traditional uses of land are changing.
To some degree, the Blue Hill peninsula has been here before. Wide open views are attractive to homebuyers, and blueberry land in particular has been the subject of development pressure for years. In the early 2000s, a nearly decade-long fundraising campaign started to preserve land from future development on Caterpillar Hill, a similar sweeping blueberry barren 15 minutes northwest in Sedgwick.
The Caterpillar Hill Initiative eventually secured a loan to buy the land with plans to add a community art center. But it wasn’t able to fundraise enough, according to its lender Equity Trust, and the land was acquired by the Blue Hill Heritage Trust in 2018 to join another parcel on the hill it had owned since 2001.
The group opposing Bowley’s project, Save the Salt Pond Blueberry Barrens, is trying to raise $1.8 million to buy the land from him and donate it to the same land trust, which wasn’t able to purchase it on the market because of bidding restrictions in its bylaws. At least $1 million will need to be pledged before the group can commit to a contract. Overall, they are looking to offer him twice the $949,000 purchase price, member Fred Cole said.
Bowley said he would give offers fair consideration, although he and the group disagree about whether a formal offer has already been made.
He said it’s challenging to be a developer in Maine today and he expected some pushback, which he understands.
Characterizing objectors as a vocal minority, he said the project response is an example of “not in my backyard,” a phrase commonly referred to by its acronym — NIMBY — to describe people who object to development because it’s near their homes.
The demand for new housing in Maine is enormous. The state aims to build 84,300 new units by 2030 to meet existing and future demand, though regional officials said in December that Maine was not on track to reach its goals.
On the Blue Hill peninsula, some residents have argued that the high-end homes won’t attract the working people the area needs, while others suggest those moving into expensive homes will free up less expensive housing and contribute to the tax base.
Bowley has also been frustrated by people trespassing on the land almost daily to take photos, insistence that elver fishermen be guaranteed to keep access they’ve historically had to Carleton Stream and suggestions that his property be turned into a park.
“It feels as though people feel that it’s theirs, and it’s not,” he said.
Cole, one of the opponents of the housing development, grew up raking blueberries there for its former longtime owner, the late Kermit Allen, and remembers him welcoming the community onto the land.
“That’s part of why people love it so much,” he said.
A representative of Allen’s business, Orland-based W.R. Allen, Inc., wasn’t available for an interview.
Twenty years ago, when many developers were buying Maine blueberry land, Allen told the Bangor Daily News that he had sold some of his smaller fields because they couldn’t be harvested mechanically and were too expensive to hand rake. To compete with larger companies, Allen’s needed to focus on yield in its larger fields.
In that story, developers said blueberry land was attractive to buyers because of the views.
Views are also a priority for opposition to the latest project. Preserving the scenery is one of the major arguments made by the group and makes up much of the public testimony to the planning board.
Their objections also include potential negative impacts on wildlife and aquaculture operations in the Salt Pond, a loss of traditional access to elver fishing, pesticides washing out from years of blueberry growing, a need to blast into granite for the home foundations, additional saltwater intrusion into drinking water and the environmental impact of nine septic systems.
They want the board to deny Bowley’s application using several criteria from state subdivision law.
One of those is the aesthetic, cultural and natural value, which Cole said is a major motivator for some residents, including himself. He pointed to several past designations to prove the point that the property is “exceptional,” including from the town’s comprehensive plan, the county planning commission and the former state planning office.
Residents of Blue Hill and surrounding towns have packed three public hearings on the application.
Bowley believes he’s provided all the information needed when it’s requested and it meets the criteria set by existing ordinances and the town’s comprehensive plan.
“If there were rules and standards in place, I would have followed them,” he said.
Blue Hill residents approved a new comprehensive plan on Saturday. The plan — a document that provides a roadmap for towns as they make big decisions — encourages Blue Hill to protect certain scenic and natural areas from development, including the Salt Pond. But the document also supports new housing in certain zones, especially near the village. Blue Hill is expected to need 80 more housing units overall by 2040, according to the plan.
The planning board is scheduled to vote on Bowley’s application next week, though both sides have indicated they would appeal a decision. If the process goes on long enough, Bowley said he might subdivide the land into four parcels five years from now, a process state law allows without planning board review after a span of time.
Referring to the shortage of homes across Maine, he said, “At some point, you do have to build.”
