Worcester Holdings paying fines for unpermitted camps, but may still have to raze them [Video]

After flouting state regulations in 2019 and building an unpermitted campus of 52 cabins in Columbia Falls, the company behind the scrapped Flagpole of Freedom project is paying its resulting fine on time and cleared the first hurdle for its overdue permit.

A consent agreement approved by Maine’s environmental board in late February required Worcester Holdings LLC to submit an after-the-fact site law application and fined the company $250,000 for building its “Flagpole View Cabins” without state permits. The company has paid $63,000 in fines to date.

Worcester cleared the first hurdle of the retroactive permitting process after the Department of Environmental Protection deemed its application complete, said David Madore, the department’s deputy commissioner.

That determination doesn’t free Worcester from the risk of having to raze the cabins and revegetate the land, however.

The company’s application is now under the state’s review and, if denied, Worcester would be required by …