"Safe Harbors LLC's marina sprawl megayacht plan would make both Rockland Harbor and Saint George River aquaculture zone "unsafe"

Key Issue 1  Need for consistency with regional growth plans.  Maine's Coastal Program has carried out  

The project will diminish public access to Rockland Harbor and to

Penobscot Bay by taking submerged lands currently used for public moorings as they
have for a century. That taking include moorings space traditionally used by the city's
commercial fishing industry.

The project will also make navigating in and out of the harbor using the city's
municipal channel more difficult and certainly less safe for small craft, including the
hundreds of kayakers that use the municipal channel. This merely to benefit the mega
yacht sector, a tiny, minuscule percentage of the vessesls preently  using Rockland Harbor    part of the   which wants to take over an unacceptable amount of the public harbor .

Key issue 2  SCENIC VIEWSHED PRESERVATION 

 The project will resulting in a substantial degradation of one of Rockland's
most important visual resources, by building a mega yacht- friendly expansion of an
existing marina in a way that will block all or part of this viewshed which stretches out
to the harbor lighthouse, then 14 miles across an unspoiled expanse to the Fox Islands, (Vinalhaven and North Haven)

Important irreplaceable and limited viewsheds such as the downtown Rockland Harbor viewshed, with its substantial public pedestrian use and access should not be degraded.

Under NRPA's Chapter 315 “A scenic resource visited by large numbers who come from across the country or state is generally considered to have national or statewide significance. “

The Rockland Harbor viewshed is certainly of national and regional significance. Given the tens of thousands of visitors to Harbor Park every year, whether ordinary sightseers or those attending Rockland's famed Lobster Festival and its Blues Festival

Maine DEP confirmed the value of Rockland's viewshed  when it twice rejected attempts  by the owners of the Samoset Resort to build a private marina alongside the Rockland Breakwater. 

It was rejected for the view and soundshed  degradation and its area denial to harbor fishermen who had been setting traps there for generations  and denial to  other existing users. See attached DEP's 2001 and DEP's 2007 documents. Note these are transcriptions of the original documents. These are DEP decisions, their review under NRPA found much about Rockland's visual resources to be useful for your consideration

Note that the state rejected the visual impact analysis carried out by a Samoset consultant and found when the visual analysis was redone accurately,the degradation of the city viewshed was far more significant than the applicant had claimed in its application.

While this is a brief set of comments,I believe that BPL knows the value and irreplaceability of Rockland viewsheds. And the importance of public access to moorings,. And safety during in-harbor navigation. Those would be unacceptably compromised by the construction and operation of Safe Harbor's proposed expansion of this marina to benefit a private business by attracting view-killing megayachts to visit and or stay in the city's cramped inner harbor.

Please reject the Safe Harbor proposal.