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Year Round Community

Year Round Cottages

Year-round cottages expected to pass this week

Where's the story?2 Points Mentioned

By Ben Meiklejohn Staff Writer

OLD ORCHARD BEACH – A developer of a gated community is hoping to get planning board approval to change the allowed use of 53 dwellings from seasonal to year-round.

Summer Winds, located at 180 Saco Ave. and owned by Bernie Saulnier, is classified as a resort community with cottages that can only be used from April 1 to Dec. 31. On Thursday, Oct. 10, the planning board will vote whether to allow year-round occupancy.

Saulnier bought the property, formerly known as Jeremiah’s Cottages, in 2011. The old cottages were demolished and foundations were laid for 53 modular homes on the site. They are then sold individually as condos.

Valdine Helstrom, the town’s code and planning administrative assistant, said Jeremiah’s Cottages were not up to code for annual use and Saulnier had inherited the seasonal use designation when he bought the property.

The new dwellings being developed on the Summer Winds site however, are built to year-round specifications, Helstrom said.

Charlene Weinstein of Charlene’s Coastal Properties, the listing agent for Summer Winds, said the 20 members of the condo association make up a mix of “weekenders and snowbirders” and summer vacationers.

In September 2012, the planning board extended the occupancy period from six months to nine months.

“These projects would have been sold out right now,” Weinstein said. “I have a waiting list of 27 people who want to buy one if they can use it year-round.”

The process of ordering a modular home and getting it delivered and placed on the foundation takes about 10 weeks, Weinstein said.

“If we get approval right away, we would be able to fill in the foundations before winter,” she said.

There are currently 20 cottages on the resort, but 33 foundations are ready for modular homes.

Planning Board Chairman Eber Weinstein (no relation to Charlene Weinstein), said he has heard no concerns from townspeople about extending the cottages’ use.

“Mostly I’ve heard that (Summer Winds) makes the town look better,” Eber Weinstein said.

The chairman said the board will wait to see if Town Planner Jeffrey Hinderliter reports that Summer Winds has met all legal and procedural requirements to qualify for the extension.

Helstrom said town engineers expected to report whether the property was up to code for year-round use this week. As of the Courier’s deadline, Helstrom could not confirm that the inspection had been completed.

Charlene Weinstein said the gated community’s homes and infrastructure, including the roads, have been built to yearround standards. To allay some concerns about year-round residency, Weinstein said the association’s condo agreement was recently amended to specify that condo owners could not rent out their property between Jan. 1 and March 31.

Charlene Weinstein said if the housing development was occupied by year-round families, it could have an impact on the local school system, but that is not an issue at Summer Winds.

“These are one-bedroom cottages and nobody is year-round,” she said. “It’s like a resort, but you get to own it. People who come here feel like they’re on vacation.”

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