FARMINGTON — A Franklin County justice has found that representatives of Wilson Lake Marina did not meet their  burdens to determine two amendments to the Zoning Ordinance are invalid and that they are entitled to a declaratory judgment.

The Planning Board denied permits to establish Wilson Lake Marina on Wilson Pond after voters amended two articles in the Zoning Ordinance in June 2021.

The applicants and owners of the marina are James Butler and Ashley Rand of Wilton whose property on the pond includes a single-family home and private dock. It is primarily in the limited residential and recreation zone and partially in the downtown village zone.

The couple has appealed the denial in a separate action to Franklin County Superior Court. It had been put on hold until the ruling on Thursday’s lawsuit.

Justice Julia Lipez held a bench trial May 30 and 31 at Franklin County Superior Court on four counts in the lawsuit filed against the town. Business representatives had filed an 11-count complaint June 10, 2021, but counts five through 11 were subsequently dismissed.

In November 2020, Butler and Rand formed Wilson Lake Marina with the goal of establishing a commercial marina on the property. They intended to install a temporary dock and lease seasonal boat slips to residents. The couple hoped to install the dock in the summer of 2021.

They hired Main-Land Development Consultants in Livermore Falls to survey the property and prepare a site plan application. Esther Bizier, an engineer with Main-Land who helped prepare the application, reviewed the Zoning Ordinance and did not see anything that would impede approval of the application, according to Lipez’s order.

The couple met with Rhonda Irish and Charles Lavin, who were then town manager and code enforcement officer, respectively, to discuss the project and proposed application. No concerns were expressed about the proposal. Rand and Butler also met with two members of the Friends of Wilson Lake organization to alert them of their upcoming site plan application. Butler put a deposit on a floating dock and invested time and money in obtaining the survey and site plan application.

The marina application was submitted to the Planning Board on March 11, 2021. The board placed the application on its its March 18 meeting agenda. Butler and Bizier attended that meeting prepared to discuss the application but were not invited to speak.

“The Planning Board did not take up the application as expected,” according to the order. “Instead, the board voted to table review of the application and ask the Select Board to hold a special town meeting to discuss ‘a moratorium on any commercial development in the (limited residential and recreation zone) surrounding Wilson Pond (Lake) for six months.'”

The Planning Board said the ordinance was not equipped to deal with a request of the sort presented in the application, including that it did not define marina.

On April 6, 2021, the Select Board tabled the moratorium proposal and took no action at subsequent meetings, in effect killing the Planning Board’s request. The Planning Board did not put the marina application back on its agenda for consideration.

Instead, on April 15, 2021, the Planning Board discussed drafting amendments to the Zoning Ordinance that would provide a definition of marina, as well as address the requirements for installing a marina. It held a workshop April 22 on the amendments. Marina representatives attended but were not invited to speak.

Butler thought the amendments were intended to halt the proposed project, according to the order. The Article 4 amendment defining marina and requiring Planning Board permits for a marina is retroactive to March 18, 2021, the date Rand and Butler’s application appeared on the Planning Board agenda. The only application affected by the zoning change was for the marina.

Marina representatives submitted an amended application on May 21, 2021.

The issue of building a marina on the pond “became quite political” during a public hearing on zoning changes, Lavin testified during the trial.

Voters at the June 2021 annual Town Meeting amended article four of the ordinance to define the term marina and added marina use to the table of land uses, and required a permit from the Planning Board for any marina proposed for the limited residential and recreation zone. Article five regarding piers, docks and wharfs was amended to provide that a single lot must contain twice the minimum shore frontage in order for an owner to be permitted to construct a pier, dock or wharf. The amendment makes the ordinance consistent with state minimum shoreline zoning guidelines.

The Planning Board subsequently denied the marina’s application.

The court ruled that the town gave members of the public time to speak during meetings and substantially complied with notice requirements in a manner that allowed the public to have adequate opportunity to be heard.

“James and Ashley are certainly disappointed with the decision,” their attorney L. Clinton Boothby of Boothby, Silver and Ricker of Turner wrote in an email. “At this point, they are evaluating whether to pursue this case to the (Supreme Judicial Court,) but the decision has not been made.”

“The Town of Wilton is very pleased with the Superior Court’s decision,” town attorney Sally J. Daggett of Jensen Baird law firm in Portland wrote in an email. “It confirms the townspeople’s June 2021 overwhelming vote in favor of the Zoning Ordinance amendments that were at issue in the lawsuit. The town hopes that Wilson Lake Marina LLP’s companion appeal challenging the Planning Board’s denial of its site plan application is resolved shortly.”