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STATE OF
MAINE SUPERIOR COURT
KNOX, ss CIVIL
ACTION
DOCKET
NO. AP-10-002
V.
BUREAU OF
PARKS AND LANDS
MAINE
DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION
PETITIONERS
MOTION FOR ENLARGEMENT OF TIME TO REVIEW RECORD AND FOR ENLARGEMENT OF RECORD
IF NEEDED.
and Maine Rules of Civil Procedure 6(a) and 6(b) hereby
requests an enlargement of the record in
the Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL)
decision approving a deepwater wind energy test area off Monhegan Island, and
an extension of three weeks in which to review
the record in this matter. In support of this motion, Petitioner states
the following:
1. The
Administrative Procedures Act provides
that "[t]he agency shall file in
the reviewing court within 30 days after petition for review is filed, or
within such shorter or longer time as the court may allow on motion, the
original or certified copy of the complete record of the proceeding under
review." 5 MRSA Sec 11005.
2. The
Maine Rules of Civil Procedure provide in Rule 6(a) Time Computation, that in
computing any period of time, "[t]he last day of the period so computed is to be
included, unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday, or a legal holiday, in which event
the period runs until the end of the next day which is not a Saturday, a
Sunday, or a holiday." Due to the initial ten day record
review deadline of May 23, 2010 falling
on a Sunday, that deadline is extended to close of business May 24, 2010.
3. Maine
Rules of Civil Procedure 6(b) states that
"the court for cause shown
may at any time in its discretion...order the period [of a specified time] enlarged if request
therefore is made before the expiration of the period originally
prescribed...." Thus, the Court
has discretion to enlarge the time for review of the record in this
matter.
4. By
Order on State's Motion for Enlargement
of Time in which to File the Administrative, dated March 3, 2010, the court set May 10, 2010 as the deadline for the
administrative record in this matter The
Petitioner later acceded to a second request by the Respondent to extend time
to prepare the record, to May 17, 2010.
5. The
Court's March 3 order also affirmed the limitation by the
Parties of the record to solely those documents pertaining to the Monhegan,
Isle au Haut, Machias and Cutler candidate
sites. Three other candidate sites south
of Monhegan were excluded by the Parties from production as part of the
record. The Parties also agreed that an
index would be made of GIS data used by the Bureau in arriving at its decision,
with the Bureau to supply the Petitioner limited sets of said data upon request.
6. The Administrative Procedures Act
further provides that "The reviewing court may require or
permit subsequent corrections to the record as provided by 5 M.R.S.A. §
11006(2)." In
its March 3, 2010 Order the Court stated in an addendum that "[t]he sufficiency of the record, when
filed, may be addressed by the parties
in the manner prescribed by rule."
7. The
record produced by the agency supporting its decision, even excluding documents
relating to Boon Island and Damariscove Island sites,
encompasses more than 350 pages, including an index to hundreds more
pages of digitized biological, physical and social data maintained electronically by the Bureau
of Parks and Lands and used in support
of the Bureau's decisions on deepwater offshore wind test sites.
8. The
size of the record along with many competing demands on the pro se Petitioner, make it very difficult to respond
meaningfully as to the overall sufficiency
of the record, let alone determine which selected data sets from the
Bureau of Parks and Lands are relevant to the Court's review of the Petition,
within the ten day period that Petitioner understands his response to the
Record must be made.
9. The
Petitioner requests additional three weeks time to review the Record, and
determine which if any electronically stored
biological, physical and social data that BPL holds electronically are needed to clarify
the record.
10.
Absent an enlargement of time and record, Petitioner will be unable to review
the Record completely, let alone bring to light selected comparative
biological and physical data held electronically by BPL regarding, in particular, its Monhegan
and Machias area candidate test sites; the state's
two most preferred locations.
11. Due
to the initial ten day deadline of May 23, 2010 falling on a Sunday, that
deadline is extended to close of business May 24, 2010.
12.
BPL has been contacted through its attorney, the Office of the Attorney General; Assistant Attorney General Mills has no
objections to this motion. Counsel for Intervenor University of Maine also has no objections to this motion.
WHEREFORE,
Petitioner respectfully requests that
this Court order a three week extension for review of the Record, and affirm
that, at that time BPL shall produce specified digital data, if any is
requested by the Petitioner, in a form agreed then by the parties as most
practical for review.
Respectfully
submitted
Ron
Huber,
Petitioner
Dated:
May 24, 2010
Ronald
Huber May
24, 2010
148 Broadway
# 105
Rockland
Maine 04841
Penny Reckards, Clerk
Knox County
Superior Court
62 Union
Street
Rockland ME
04841
Re: Ronald
Huber v. Bureau of Parks and Lands, Department of Conservation
Docket No. AP-10-002
Dear Ms Reckards
Please find
enclosed for filing in the above referenced matter, the Petitioner's Motion
for Enlargement of Time to Review Record
and Enlargement of Record.
Thank you!
Sincerely
Ron Huber
Petitioner