Company behind failed flagpole could be fined $250,000 for successful cabins

The family that abandoned plans for a towering flagpole and theme park in Washington County could be fined $250,000 after failing to secure permits for 52 rental cabins, a restaurant and other amenities it built in anticipation of the project.

Worcester Resources built the Flagpole View Cabins Development over at least seven acres in Columbia Falls between 2019 and 2022, and it was first notified in July 2022 that it had violated state environmental rules by not securing a permit for the work.

A year-and-a-half later, the family operation still doesn’t have the permits, but it has continued to seasonally rent out the cabins at nightly rates between $169 and $229, according to a proposed consent agreement the state has drafted for the company.

The agreement, which would require Worcester Resources to finally secure a permit for the cabins and pay the $250,000 penalty, will go before the Maine Board of Environmental Protection on Feb. 28. If the company doesn’t secure a permit, the agreement would require it to remove all the developments.

Worcester Resources did not respond to a request for comment, and the company’s attorney, Timothy Pease of Bangor, is out of office this week, according to an automatic response on his email.

The Worcester family, which also owns a Down East wreath company, has used the 52 cabins for both worker housing and seasonal rentals, according to a memo from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The cabins also include a takeout restaurant, roads, parking lots, a well head and a water storage tank building. Their next availability for rental will be in late April, according to a website for the business.

After inspecting the site in July 2022, state officials determined that the company had not gotten a development permit for the work or used appropriate erosion controls, with potential impacts on water quality and aquatic life, according to Maine DEP.

About a year later, in August 2023, Maine DEP staff found that the unpermitted cabins were still being rented out after noticing a sign along Route 1 advertising them.

It’s not the first environmental violation for the Worcester family business. It and another landowner paid a $5,000 civil penalty in 2022 for unpermitted work and sediment discharge associated with a timber harvesting operation in Jonesboro, according to the Maine Monitor .

Meanwhile, local officials in Columbia Falls are still taking stock after the Worcesters abandoned their proposal for a $1 billion park that would have included a flagpole taller than the Empire State Building, a theater, restaurants, gondolas and other amenities. The town enacted a temporary development ban in response to the project and has been preparing to adopt new development restrictions next month.