NEWRY – Despite being politely pressured to approve a local restaurant entrepreneur’s application proposal Wednesday night, planners held their ground.

Led by Chairman Joseph Aloisio, the Planning Board rebuffed Philip Everett’s request for conditional approval of his proposed 327-seat restaurant called Sunday’s Well. It would be a 7,000-square-foot, two-story, Irish-themed eatery in Les Otten’s former house at One Timberline Drive.

They did, however, approve creation of a 50-foot buffer zone across the eatery’s northeast property line.

That means any modifications planned in that zone must go before planners and the public first.

At the 45-minute public hearing and subsequent Planning Board meeting,

Aloisio reiterated his concerns that Everett didn’t produce the agreements made between Sunday’s Well and American Skiing Co. until after the hearing.

Everett, the managing partner of a company called Maine P.S.L. LLC, failed to mention he had the agreement with him during the hearing after an abutter,

Landers Symes of 32 Timberline Drive, asked planners what it said about two issues: parking and the Sunday River Ski Area’s sewage treatment plant.

Aloisio responded that the board hadn’t seen the document.

Symes also said he was worried about whether neighbors like himself would continue to have a say if the restaurant’s ownership changed later.

Another abutter, Barney Corning of 36 Timberline Drive, also mentioned the agreement when asking about any plans to use the ski area’s parking lot No. 3 for spillover parking.

Everett produced a single copy of the agreement during the board’s regular meeting. When he handed it to Aloisio, he said that, at the insistence of American Skiing Co., two pages had been removed. Those pages didn’t pertain to his proposed eatery or land, Everett said.

Symes questioned the legality of such a document with pages missing.

Aloisio said he would contact the Maine Municipal Association to determine if the board could use the incomplete agreement to make a decision on Everett’s application.

Both Corning and Symes repeatedly expressed concerns about parking, noise and headlights of cars entering and exiting the parking areas, and timber clearing.

Aloisio said the plans show the restaurant would use the ski area’s sewage treatment plant and fire suppression system.

The original plans had included a large loop parking area, which would have meant the installation of lights and a walkway. Those were scrapped by Everett after abutters raised objections at a previous meeting.

His current plan for the restaurant would use two floors of Otten’s former house and a 60-by-60-foot addition to its front, Everett said. They would remake the two-car garage into a kitchen.

A bar with seating around it and small stage would be located on the lower floor, while the second floor would hold the restaurant, lounge and waiting area.

Otten, the founder and former CEO and chairman of American Skiing Co., stepped down in March 2001.

Everett also intends to add an 8-foot stockade fence to block light from neighbors and to add acoustic tiling inside the building to control noise.

Times of operation would be during the winter only, for the time being, from the end of November through the second or third week in April from 10:30 a.m. to 30 minutes after midnight.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com