Ellsworth American
Eco-resort Skeptics Outnumber Supports at Schoodic Meeting
By Tom Walsh
April 18, 2008

WINTER HARBOR — Some 75 skeptics and supporters of a proposal to develop 3,200 acres adjacent to Schoodic Point met Thursday evening to cuss and discuss the project.

Sponsored by the Schoodic Committee of Friends of Acadia, the public meeting at the Schoodic Education and Research Center included 90 minutes of discussion that generated many more questions than answers.

Although a site plan for the project was reviewed, there were no representatives of the would-be developer at the meeting to answer questions or to address concerns.

Critics of what’s been described as an "eco-resort community" that would include two hotels, a golf course and a mix of housing within the wilderness tract clearly outnumbered supporters at the meeting.

The few proponents who spoke noted that tourism has been a staple of Winter Harbor’s local economy for more than a century, dating back to the development of the Grindstone Neck enclave for wealthy "rusticators" from Philadelphia and other East Coast urban areas.