A controversial plan to open a live-in for-profit educational facility for teens on the Westport/Little Compton town line appears all but dead this week, after the developer notified Westport officials just before the July 4th holiday that he intends to withdraw his application.

The Westport Planning Board needs to officially approve the request at its next meeting on Tuesday, July 16. If it accepts the withdrawal, it will mean the end, at least for now, of Hyannis developer Kenneth Weber’s plan to develop the facility in a residential area at 435 Old Harbor Road.

Weber’s plan, first brought before the Westport Planning Board last summer, was to develop the 10-acre former Golden Dream Farm into a live-in facility that would treat teens with substance abuse and behavioral issues.

Though he and his attorney have said since the beginning that the facility would be primarily educational in nature and is thus allowed by right in the residential agricultural zone in which it sits, the proposal has faced massive resistance from neighbors.

Late last year, more than 100 of them signed a letter opposing the development, contending that Weber described the facility as  educational to avoid having to appear before the zoning board for variances and other approvals that would be necessary with a non-conforming use such as a for-profit business.

Still, Weber contended that early correspondence with town officials, including Westport Building Official Ralph Souza, sustains his point that the primary use would be educational. In May 2023, in response to a query from Weber on the nature of the property, Souza wrote that “the use of the property at 435 Old Harbor Road for educational service would be allowed” as long as the planning board issues site plan approval.

Later in the year, after several neighbors appealed what Weber called Souza’s “determination,” the zoning board ruled that Souza’s note was general in nature, and addressed only whether such a use is allowed in the zone in which the property sits, and was not a determination that the facility was indeed primarily educational in nature.

Speaking to the next step at that time, Westport Zoning Board member Cynthia Kozakiewicz said in December that the ball was now in the developer’s court:

“If this is a project he wants to do, he has to make the decision if it’s risky enough to go ahead and go through all of the expense of the planning board, and buying the property, and perhaps getting a building permit denied. I don’t think us making a decision one way or another to make his job easier or more secure in his investment, is really what we should be doing here.”

Since that meeting, little has transpired with the project, and Weber asked the planning board to continue his application several times this year.