BAR HARBOR — The number of houses proposed for a Sand Point Road subdivision near the Bar Harbor Campground is too high, according to an independent review of engineering reports.

Brian Shaw is seeking planning board approval for a seven-lot subdivision, with nine houses, on an 11-acre piece off the Sand Point Road. A review of wastewater discharge from leachfields done by CES, Inc. found that according to the calculations supplied by the Bar Harbor land-use ordinance, the soils on the property can support the number of units being proposed.

However, peer review of the proposal by Ransom Engineering of Portland identified that the calculation in the LUO is incorrect, and that based on standard engineering practice the property would support just one dwelling every two acres, for a maximum of five.

“If Ransom is indeed correct, the allowable density is significantly less than what is being called for by this project,” abutter James Kitler said during the public hearing before the planning board Feb. 6.

Greg Johnston of CES and town planner Anne Krieg both acknowledged that the density formula in the LUO is flawed. Ms. Krieg pointed out following the meeting that an ordinance amendment on the next town meeting ballot corrects the math. She is looking into past ordinances, she said, to see whether the calculation has always been incorrect or if it was transcribed incorrectly at some point.

It hasn’t come up before, she said, because “most site evaluators in the past have just used the standard engineering practice.”

State law requires Mr. Shaw to show that the soils on the property will support the development that is being proposed. So, while the ordinance calculations may be met by the original proposal, that does not necessarily mean it would pass muster with the standard the state says should be applied.

“I guess that’s what the two engineers will have to work out, what is really right for this property and what meets this ordinance,” Ms. Krieg said.

Mr. Coffin found that state and municipal requirements for storm water and drinking water can be met.

The handful of Sand Point Road residents who spoke at the public hearing told of flooding that already occurs on their properties during rainstorms, and pleaded with the board to make sure things were not made worse by the development. Others expressed dismay that Mr. Shaw’s largely wooded property was going to be built on at all.

“This has been a territory that has been a generally appreciated area by neighbors, and it has been a buffer to the campground, and we had no idea that Mr. Staples was considering selling it to someone who would develop it,” Marilyn Kitler said.

The public hearing is scheduled to continue on March 19.