Ames Farm Inn resort or marina?

Ames Farm Inn might have been in business for better than a century, but it has done so without a site plan approved by the town of Gilford. In an attempt to change this, owner Donald Ames applied to the Planning Board for an "as-built" site plan review. Ames was represented at the meeting last night by engineer Steven Smith.

The board voted to table the application until they could visit the site, but not before several concerning issues were raised regarding the business.

"We are trying to establish a baseline," said Smith, who presented the board with a plan detailing the inn's operations, which included docks, slips, cottages, a restaurant, a store, an office and a residence. The plan also included areas for boat storage, boat service and washing, and parking for vehicles and trailers.

Ames Farm Inn was founded in 1890, and covers 15.13 acres at 2800 Lakeshore Road (Route 11). It has just over 1,300-feet of frontage on the road and about 1,200-feet of waterfront. It is currently in the limited residential zone, but when the town first adopted zoning regulations in the 1960s it was in a commercial zone.

The inn allows the public to launch boats for a fee, rents docks, and offers limited water taxi services to island residents. With the boating facilities and services, it was Smith's hope that the board would approve the facility as a an inn and a commercial marina "as a pre-existing, non-conforming use," since marinas are not permitted in residential zones under the town's current regulation.

Planning Board Chair Polly Sanfacon noted that the town is in possession of letters from Donald Ames which seem to contradict the current position on the nature of the business. She quoted a letter written to the town in 1999 in which Ames explicitly states "We are a hotel" — and not a marina.

Connie Grant, the selectmen's representative to the board, noted that Ames has exhibited a pattern of "twisting and manipulating" his descriptions of his business based on whatever is most advantageous at the time.

Board member Carolyn Scattergood read a letter from Ames, written in August of 2006, in which he writes: "no more than 25-percent of our waterfront is covered by docks or similar structures." Looking at the plan presented by Smith, Scattergood said docks cover "easily 50-percent" of the shoreline. Also in that letter, Ames describes his business as a resort, not a marina.

Joseph Shank's home abuts Ames Farm Inn immediately to the south. Shank said he has "a list of concerns" about the applications. In the 13 years that Shank has owned his home, he said "I have seen that property grow 100 times over." Not only growth, Shank said he has seen excavators dig up wetlands on the property, boats stored on wetlands, and "construction equipment running around endlessly…It has gotten out of control."

Shank said the fishing derbies the business hosts, of which Smith said there are more than 30 each year, are also "getting out of hand." Shank said the current application is an "absolute extension" of the business practices he has witnessed from his neighbor. He described the practice as "do a little, stop. Do a little, stop. Go under the covers and say, 'I'm grandfathered.' It's never been a full-fledged marina."

Charles Moser owns property at 90 Dinsmoor Point Road, and he presented the board members with a thick packet of legal documents he thinks detail the "intense" changes he said he has witnessed in the past 15 years.

Moser said he grew up two properties away from Ames Farm Inn, and has a half-century of memories on and around the property. "One thing they never sold at Ames Farm was poppycock — and that's what you're being served a lot of tonight," regarding the claim that the business is merely operating as it has for generations.

Moser asserted that much of the property's wetlands have been filled in, and he presented a letter from the state's Department of Environmental Services that he said indicates that the property does not have a permit for its septic system.

The board scheduled its Ames Farm Inn site visit for Oct. 26 at 3:30 p.m.