The Cookie Jar in Cape Elizabeth Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

The Cape Elizabeth Planning Board unanimously approved a new site plan for the Cookie Jar Tuesday night, allowing the bakery’s front parking spaces to remain in use without officially recognizing them.

Under the new site plan, the parking spaces along the building’s Shore Road facade are listed as “existing casual parking” – a phrase that sparked confusion among board members – but are not delineated.

The fate of the parking spaces became a flashpoint in town ahead of the Nov. 5 election, when an online petition to “Save the Cookie Jar” began circulating, amassing thousands of signatures in its first week. But it was never clear that the spaces were truly in jeopardy, as the board never asked the bakery to stop allowing customers to park there.

Following an initial review by the planning board last month, Cookie Jar owners Tom and Donna Piscopo submitted a revised draft of their new site plan amendment ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.

That new plan does not include delineated parking spaces in front of the building, eliminating them from the discussion. Board members emphasized, though, that the area could still be used as parking.

With the new plan, the Cookie Jar also requested permission to reduce its required number of parking spaces by 30% – a waiver available to buildings that existed before June 1997. That brings the total number of spaces to nine, which can be fulfilled by parking along the building’s side and rear.

Maureen O’Meara, the town planner, said the new site plan was designed to address the bakery’s immediate need to access Preble Street, though it spiraled into a larger debate. She urged the board to avoid digging “too deep into the front area” at this time.

“What you have in front of you is an attempt to preserve the status quo for now,” she told the board. “This particular situation needs a bigger response than a site plan by the planning board.”

Board Chair Jonathan Sahrbeck opened discussion of the Cookie Jar site plan by saying misinformation around the parking issue had sparked personal attacks on board members, the Piscopos and neighboring business owners.

“A lot of it was appalling to me,” he said.

He added that several claims on the SaveTheCookieJar.com website, including a suggestion that the board had attempted to remove the bakery’s parking spaces years ago, were untrue.

“It’s dishonest,” Sahrbeck said. “We’re working with the Cookie Jar to try to help them get into compliance with the current ordinances.”

Tuesday’s meeting came less than a week after the Cape Elizabeth Town Council voted to offer the Cookie Jar a special license to encroach roughly 2 ½ feet into the public right of way. Parked cars extending into the right of way could violate the zoning ordinance, which was one of several concerns raised by the planning board last month.

Council Chair Tim Reiniger, who proposed the license and called a special meeting to vote on it last month, said it was designed “to give as many options as possible to the Cookie Jar owners” depending on how the planning board acted.

Reached by phone before Tuesday’s meeting, Reiniger said the planning board’s decision to approve a site plan that allows the spaces to continue being used as they are “would be a great solution for the Cookie Jar and the community.”

Cape Elizabeth town council chair Tim Reiniger talks about the parking issue while stopping for a cup of coffee at the Cookie Jar last month. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Reiniger said he heard secondhand that the Piscopos were enthusiastic about the license, but he had not heard explicitly from either owner that they intend to sign it.

The Piscopos could not be reached Tuesday evening.

It’s not clear how, or whether, that license comes into play if the front parking spots are not delineated. But the Piscopos could technically still opt to sign it.

Sahrbeck said the licenses are now “a non-issue” at Tuesday’s meeting. “Those spots are no longer on this site plan,” he said.