Page 12 Fishermen's Voice March 2007

Resort Again Seeks Pier Beside Rockland Breakwater
by Steve Cartwright

ROCKLAND — For the second time around, the Samoset Resort is proposing a private pier that would sit beside the historic Rockland breakwater.

The latest plan calls fora 550-foot wooden pier, plus floats, that would complement 45 condominiums the resort corporation would build, plus a boathouse. The Samoset Resort, built on the site of a famous hotel of the same name, straddles Rockport and Rockland.

The corporation proposed a similar pier and a yacht club in 2001, but the pier was denied in a 3-2 Rockland city council vote.

Cornelius Russell, generalmanager at the Samoset, said the latest pier proposal has been submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for approval.

City officials said they have not received any formal plans for the pier.

Meanwhile, pier opponents are still around, said lobsterman Arthur Johnson of Rockland.

He vowed to fight any proposal that would affect what he described as fertile lobster fishing grounds around the breakwater. He also said fishing vessels moor in that area, and that the break-water is a major draw for tourists and a pier would block the view.

The breakwater, with its lighthouse and nearby beach, has long been accessible to the public. The city's Marie Reed Park, adjacent to the beach and breakwater, is named fora local woman who worked hard to preserve public access to the granite breakwater.

Samoset's Russell said access would be retained if the corporation builds a pier and boathouse plus public toilets. He said the Samoset owns the beach where the pier would be built.

Local environmental activist Ron Huber said he met with the

Rockland Harbor Committee recently and suggested a resource protection zone be created around the breakwater, allowing current uses but prohibiting permanent structures. He said such zones exist for areas on dry land, and could be designated in the harbor as well.

In a measure that might derail the pier plan, windjammer Capt. Neal Parker of Rockland has filed an application for an aquaculture lease for coral and eelgrass in a rectangle where the pier would be built.

That application is pending, Parker said.