Unexpected twists to the BACORD vs. Wal-Mart saga are to be expected now that the state Board of Environmental Protection has delayed ruling on whether the nation's No. 1 retailer can build a 224,000-square foot superstore next to the Penjajawoc Marsh.

Despite a recommendation by the state's Department of Environmental Protection to approve a site permit for Widewaters -- the developer -- the BEP decided at its Jan. 17 to wait until March 20 to vote on whether to agree with DEP.

The 10-member board, composed of Maine residents with various backgrounds who are appointed by the governor, cited a handful of problems with the proposed project:

• Board members said it wasn't clear whether Wal-Mart would be legally responsible for financing cost overruns. KeyBank has agreed to finance $2.9 million in project costs.

• Some board members weren't satisfied with Widewaters' plans to offset potential damage to nearby wildlife habitats.

• The board couldn't decide whether it should consider the effects of the Wal-Mart superstore specifically or the effects of the proposed superstore and the existing Circuit City.

Valerie Carter, a leader of BACORD -- Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development -- told the media she was pleased that the BEP tabled the matter. She said the board's indecision indicated that members shared BACORD's concerns with the project. BACORD says any more development on Stillwater Avenue near the Bangor Mall would endanger wildlife that call the Penjajawoc Marsh home.

Construction of the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter off Stillwater Avenue and Gilman Road could begin as soon as spring, with the store open in time for next holiday shopping season. That's if the state Board of Environmental Protection accepts a report by the Department of Environmental Protection that recommends the board grant Widewaters Group, the developer, a site permit.

The 37-page report lists 22 conditions that Widewaters must meet before the store could open. Widewaters must meet many of the conditions before breaking ground. The conditions require Widewaters to address storm water runoff and drainage, among other things. Another condition would require Wal-Mart to designate an employee to be trained in hazardous waste disposal.

A spokesman for Widewaters has told local media that the developer has no objections to the conditions and does not think meeting them will be difficult.

Meanwhile, Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development -- BACORD -- has vowed it will continue to fight construction of the 224,000-square foot Wal-Mart superstore. The group says the superstore will threaten the Penjajawoc Marsh and endangered birds that call the 300-acre marsh home. The store's property would come within 100 feet of the Penjajawoc Stream, which already flows through the middle of the Bangor Mall shopping area.

The public has until Dec. 19 to comment on the DEP report and recommendations. The Environmental Protection Board is scheduled to meet Jan. 16 in Augusta to vote on whether to grant Widewaters a site permit.

If the BEP grants Widewaters the permit, the remaining hurdle to construction would be the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which is reviewing the Bangor planning board's decision to reject Widewaters' construction plans. The planning board voted 3-2 last year against Widewaters, with members saying the proposed store wouldn't fit the area's aesthetics. Widewaters appealed to the Penobscot Superior Court, which ruled the planning board had based its decision on an unconstitutionally vague city zoning ordinance.

BACORD appealed the decision to the state supreme court, which deferred a ruling last winter until it could gather more information from the planning board on its rationale.

The long and contentious struggle between a developer and a local environmental group took yet another turn last week when the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said it needed more information before ruling on whether the Bangor Planning Board's initial vote to deny construction of a Wal-Mart was proper.

The justices asked the Planning Board to provide a written explanation for its decision last April to reject a request by the Widewaters Group to build a Wal-Mart superstore off Stillwater Avenue. The board had voted 3-2 to reject the Wal-Mart project after members of Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development argued the planned superstore would destroy the nearby Penjajawoc Marsh. At the time, the board's majority said it rejected the project under a clause in the city's zoning ordinance that allowed the board to reject plans that threaten an area's scenic or natural beauty or threaten to harm an irreplaceable natural area.

Penobscot County Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm ordered the planning board to approve the project after Widewaters appealed. Hjelm ruled that the planning board had relied on an unconstitutionally vague ordinance, agreeing with Widewaters that developers must have objective rather than subjective criteria to meet zoning ordinances.

In its decision last week, the supreme court justices split 3-3 on whether BACORD had standing to appeal the Superior Court decision. Under the supreme court's rules, the split means BACORD does have legal standing in the case.

BACORD member Valerie Carter told WVII-TV that the justices' decision gave the environmental group the win in the case. However, the court will not rule on the merits of the case until after it hears from the Bangor planning board. The justices want to know which zoning criteria Widewaters met and which criteria Widewaters failed to meet in its application to build a 224,000-square foot Wal-Mart.

Analysis and comment
Growing pains
Debate over Wal-Mart superstore highlights Queen City's conflicting interests

Who's trespassing on whose land depends on whom you talk with in Bangor.

A handful of strip malls have also opened in the area, plus Kentucky Fried Chicken, Olive Garden, Applebee's, Pizzeria Uno and Denny's.

The city's expansion on its eastern tip has not been all successful, though. Long-time tenant Service Merchandise has closed, Red Lobster has closed, Home Quarters has closed and the Berlin City car dealership has closed. Although Best Buy has since moved in and replaced Service Merchandise, the Home Quarters building has yet to find a buyer.

Despite the expansion of the Bangor Mall area, the city's downtown -- once thought to be on its last legs -- has rebuilt itself as a chic place to hang out at cafes and restaurants and to shop at specialty stores. Downtown buildings that once had vacant upper floors now boast attractive studio apartments for those who want the feel of a bustling city but prefer living in a small town. The Pickering Square parking garage, once virtually empty, has filled to capacity frequently to the point the city is now adding two levels.

The city has moved ahead with plans to develop more than 40 acres of waterfront the city bought in the late 1980s. Earlier this year the city finished rebuilding the bulkhead on the waterfront; an amphitheater will soon call the waterfront home.

This exponential commercial growth and development has led to more jobs in the Queen City. But now the City Council and the residents it serves are faced with a dilemma: How should the city promote economic expansion while protecting its natural heritage?

In the 1960s, the city declared war on the slums of downtown. As a result, the city cleaned up the banks of the Kenduskeag Stream in the business district. But in the process, the city went further, demolishing Union Station at the end of Exchange Street, the old City Hall on Hammond Street and the Bijou Theatre on Exchange Street. In the name of progress, the city replaced Union Station with a drab-looking strip mall that few people would call an improvement and replaced City Hall with a small two-level parking garage.

The Urban Renewal movement was, for the most part, a mistake because it robbed the city of some of its heritage.

Now, almost 30 years later, Bangor is wrestling with how best to preserve the heritage that remains as so-called big-box stores move in.

Wal-Mart officials say the store on Springer Drive, which opened in 1992, has outlived its usefulness. They want to build a 224,000-square foot superstore next to Circuit City, off Stillwater Avenue and Gilman Road. The store would be 10 times the size of Circuit City and require a 13-acre, 900-space parking lot. The store would be open 24 hours a day and feature a full-size grocery department, an automotive center and full-size garden center in addition to the standard McDonald's in-store restaurant and hair salon.

However, the new store would be next to the Penjajawoc Marsh, which is home to hundreds of bird species, some of which are rare to Maine.

Naturally, the project has its opponents. One camp argues that big-box stores are the anti-christ of smaller, local businesses, and that, on principle, the store should not be built. These opponents don't see a pressing need or demand for a 24-hour superstore, and they wonder what will become of the current Wal-Mart on Springer Drive. The owner of the former Home Quarters building has yet to find a buyer.

These opponents also point to increased traffic on Stillwater Avenue. The state Department of Transportation will open a new Interstate 95 interchange on Stillwater Avenue in November to ease congestion on the Hogan Road interchange. But building a larger Wal-Mart off Stillwater Avenue would merely create more traffic for the road.

Logistical and practical objections aside, the most fervent opponents of the project say the superstore would destroy one of the city's natural treasures in the Penjajawoc Marsh. This camp sees Wal-Mart as a behemoth capitalistic conglomerate bent on forcing its will on a small city with no regard to the environment.

Some may call this a classic story of corporate greed vs. a quickly vanishing natural environment -- profit over preservation.

Landowners should not be free to develop their land in a way that goes against the greater community's wishes to develop an aesthetically tolerable landscape, is the position of Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, a group of residents formed specifically to fight Wal-Mart's plans.

BACORD decried a Penobscot County Superior Court justice's ruling that Bangor's planning board could not invoke a vague, catch-all provision in the city's zoning ordinance. The provision sought to give the planning board the power to reject a proposed development on environmentally aesthetic grounds.

Justice Jeffrey Hjelms ruled that the provision violated the developer's right to due process because the provision did not list specific criteria the developer could meet to get approval for the project. The provision would have allowed the planning board to reject any plans, regardless of whether they had met objective standards, such as height and setback requirements, and use restrictions.

Although it may be puzzling to some how Wal-Mart could fail to foresee the strong opposition to the superstore despite the company's in-depth studies of where its stores could succeed, it is equally puzzling how the City Council and the residents it represents could have left the natural treasure chest unguarded. Since the late 1980s the city has sought more development of the Bangor Mall area. Until recently, few people aside from the bird-watchers who frequent the Penjajawoc Marsh even knew of the marsh's ecological importance -- or even of its existence.

The proposed Wal-Mart would not destroy any of the Penjajawoc Marsh, despite what most people think. This field is where the superstore would be; the marsh is about a half-mile in the back.

Bangor will continue to grow as a commercial hub north of the Augusta-Waterville area. At times, such as now, that growth will be painful as the city wrestles with encouraging new businesses that will bring more jobs and preserving Bangor's past as a gateway to the northern Maine woods: "a star on the edge of night, still hewing at the forests of which it is built," as Henry David Thoreau wrote in his book "The Maine Woods."

Only a few lumber mills remain around Bangor, but its downtown and residential architecture should not be the sole remnants of a colorful and prosperous past. In fact, they can serve to establish a colorful and prosperous future in tandem with the Queen City's once-proud heritage of being the lumber capital of the world.

Instead of waging a futile legal battle, the Bangor City Council appropriately decided not to appeal the Superior Court's decision. Big business is not going away, but this doesn't mean the city should remain blind to the realities of economic expansion. A clean, natural environment is a priceless commodity the city and its big-business partners can use to their advantage. However, fervent groups such as BACORD only muddy the issue by focusing only on one business's development plans and not acknowledging more openly that the field to which its members so often flock to give the news media protest sound bites is not even near the Penjajawoc Marsh.

A Penobscot County Superior Court justice agreed Wednesday to grant an injunction against the developer of the Wal-Mart superstore planned for just off Stillwater Avenue in a field next to a marsh.

Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, a group of residents staunchly opposed to the proposed superstore, had asked Justice Jeffrey Hjelms to prevent construction at the site until the Maine Supreme Judicial Court rules on the group's appeal of Hjelms' May 31 decision ordering the city's Planning Board to approve the project. BACORD claims the superstore would severely damage the Penjajawoc Marsh, which is home to hundreds of bird species, some of which are rare to Maine.

In agreeing to freeze construction at the site, Hjelms said irreparable harm could come to the marsh if the Maine high court overturns his order that the project may proceed under Bangor's zoning ordinance.

The restraining order will have virtually no effect on the superstore project, though, because the developer -- New York-based Widewaters Group -- must still get permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection and state Department of Transportation before building.

DEP said the site permit application from Widewaters is incomplete because it does not address a retention pond that would lie within a DEP-mandated 250-foot buffer zone around the marsh.

A Penobscot County Superior Court judge ordered the Bangor Planning Board Thursday to overturn its 3-2 decision to deny a developer a permit to build a Wal-Mart superstore next to the Penjajawoc Marsh, off Stillwater Avenue.

Judge Jeffrey Hjelm ruled that a clause in Bangor's zoning ordinance that the board cited in rejecting plans for a Wal-Mart superstore was unconstitutionally vague. The clause gave planning board members the option of rejecting plans if a proposed development would harm an area's scenic or natural beauty or an irreplaceable natural area. Hjelm said the clause was unconstitutional because it did not provide a set of objective criteria a developer could meet.

Only a day after Hjelm's issued his ruling, a local group of residents opposed to the Wal-Mart superstore filed an appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Hjelm had allowed the group, Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, to intervene in the developer's lawsuit against the city.

The superstore would cover 224,000 square feet -- about 5 acres -- and be open 24 hours a day with a full-size grocery section and automotive section. The 13-acre parking lot would have a capacity of between 900 to 1,000 cars. Wal-Mart's current Bangor store, which opened on Springer Drive in 1992, comprises a mere 115,000 square feet.

Wal-Mart officials announced last month they also plan to build a 155,000-square foot superstore across the Penobscot River in Brewer, on outer Wilson Street. That store would also be open 24 hours a day and feature a full-size grocery section and automotive section.

The Bangor Planning Board is scheduled to meet June 5 to reconsider its decision to reject plans for the Bangor superstore.

BACORD and other opponents of the superstore say the store would destroy the environment around the Penjajawoc Marsh, which is home to hundreds of bird species that are rare to Maine. The Widewaters Group, the New York developer of the proposed Wal-Mart, has already moved the proposed store farther away from the marsh, which comprises more than 300 acres off Stillwater Avenue.

In its appeal, BACORD asked Hjelm to issue a stay on his order so construction cannot begin. However, Widewaters and Wal-Mart still need approval from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine Department of Transportation before they can break ground.

Wal-Mart wants second Bangor area superstore in Brewer

Wal-Mart announced plans Thursday to build a 155,000-square foot superstore on outer Wilson Street in Brewer. The store would open within the next 18 months.

The company said it will not drop plans for a 224,000-square foot superstore off Stillwater Avenue in Bangor. The proposed Bangor superstore has drawn criticism from residents who want to restrict development near the Penjajawoc Marsh, home to hundreds of bird species that are rare to Maine.

The Bangor Planning Board rejected plans for the Bangor store last month by a 3-2 vote, but Wal-Mart has filed a lawsuit against the city in Penobscot County Superior Court. The lawsuit seeks to overturn the planning board's decision on the grounds the board exceeded its authority in using criteria not part of Bangor's zoning ordinance.

Plans for the Brewer superstore had been in the making before the Bangor Planning Board's decision; Wal-Mart officials said their market research shows the Bangor-Brewer area can support two superstores.

The Brewer superstore would have an automotive center, grocery store, and would be open 24 hours a day.

Wal-Mart's current store for the Twin Cities, on Springer Drive in Bangor, opened in 1992.

Developer sues Bangor over Wal-Mart decision

Widewaters Group, the development firm seeking to build a Wal-Mart superstore, filed suit against the city of Bangor last Thursday after the city's planning board voted 3-2 to reject the group's Wal-Mart plans.

Widewaters wants to build a 224,000-square foot Wal-Mart next to the Penjajawoc Marsh, a 350-acre wetland that is home to hundreds of rare bird species off Stillwater Avenue, near the Bangor Mall. In its suit in Penobscot County Superior Court, Widewaters said it had met all of the city's zoning requirements and that the planning board exceeded its authority by rejecting the plans anyway. The city's own planning department recommended that the planning board approve the project.

One group of opponents of the proposed store say further development near the marsh would ruin the homes of wildlife in the area. Another group simply does not want Wal-Mart to expand; Wal-Mart opened its Springer Drive store in 1992.

The Bangor Daily News reported in its April 13 edition that city officials didn't seem optimistic that the planning board's decision would stand under judicial scrutiny.

The city and Widewaters have agreed to allow the court to put the lawsuit on a fast track, but a decision probably won't be made until at least June.

Planning board says 'no' to Wal-Mart superstore

The Bangor Planning Board rejected plans for a Wal-Mart superstore by a 3-2 vote at its April 3 meeting.

The New York-based Widewaters Group, which owns the 28.6-acre site for the proposed store, had sought to build a 224,000-square foot Wal-Mart on land adjacent to the Penjajawoc Marsh on Stillwater Avenue.

Opponents of the project had argued that the 5-acre building and 900-space parking lot would endanger the 350-acre marsh, which is home to hundreds of rare species of birds to Maine and other wildlife.

The Planning Board's vote went against the city's own planning department, which had recommended the board approve the project. A Widewaters spokesman at the Planning Board meeting said his group would continue to pursue the project. Widewaters can appeal the board's decision to Superior Court on the grounds that state law required the city to approve the project because the project met all federal and state laws and Bangor's zoning ordinance.

Wal-Mart, which opened its current Bangor store on Springer Drive in 1992, has met similar resistance to its proposed superstores in Ellsworth, Rockland and Belfast. Ellsworth and Rockland already have Wal-Marts.

Leading up to the planning board's decision, Wal-Mart had placed a full-page advertisement in the Bangor Daily News touting the chain's commitment to local charities and communities. Wal-Mart also gave money to Bangor to rebuild the playground at Fruit Street School, on the city's east side.