A local developer’s long-held vision of building and opening a new RV park in Wells is making its way through the town’s planning process.
The Wells Planning Board accepted a site plan pre-application Monday for a proposed RV park with 100 campsites at 548 Bald Hill Road.
Richard Bois of Bald Hill, LLC is the owner of the property and the applicant.
Currently, the 75-acre parcel is the site of a residence and a mix of cleared and uncleared land. An unpaved roadway, with a granite post for mailboxes, leads from Bald Hill Road to the property.
Bois hopes to transform the property into a park with sites for campers to enjoy a stay in the area in either an RV or a tent, as well as with an office, an activity field, and internal roads.
“This has been a project in the works for probably over 20 years now,” Bois told Planning Board members at their meeting.
The project goes so far back, Bois added, that town engineer Mike Livingston drew up the concept plan for the park when he worked for himself at his own business.
While campers can set up tents on sites, Bois said the park will mostly cater to those with recreation vehicles, or RVs.
“I’m trying to go with a seasonal RV park,” Bois said. “That’s my plan if it’s allowed.”
If approved, the park would be the 24th one in the tourist-destination community, according to Livingston. Together, the 23 current RV campgrounds in Wells offer 3,644 sites, Livingston said.
Bois said he is considering using the current home on the property “as an office or a caretaker’s facility – something along those lines.”
Livingston said an RV park is allowed in that district of town. He said the code office would need to see more details – about water and sewer connections, for example – if the individual sites within the park are “full park model” ones.
Bois mentioned that the park’s water supply would have to come from wells. He pointed out that there is already a well on site, adjacent to a fire pond. He added that preliminary drilling is still needed to identify other potential water sources.
“I’m not 100% sure yet where they’ll be,” Bois said, referring to the wells.
Bois also said he is planning to shift the park’s entrance a bit more northeast than it is currently situated on the concept drawing he presented to the board at the meeting.
Planning Board members briefly discussed whether to schedule a site walk but decided to hold off to give Bois time to hire an engineer for the project and determine precisely where the new entrance will be located.
Planning Board members considered the location of the new entrance important, given the property’s proximity to a curve in Bald Hill Road.
The board voted unanimously to extend its workshop for the project up to 60 days. In addition to a site walk, a public hearing for the project will also be scheduled in the future.
