LEWISTON — Approval for Bates College to construct a $2.5 million boathouse on the Androscoggin River has been overturned.

The Greene Appeals Board voted Thursday that the Planning Board erred in granting a permit for construction, dismissing Bates’ argument that it should be allowed to build within the shoreland zone because the boathouse was similar to a marina.

Members of the Appeals Board voted 3-2 that the facility does not fit the definition of a marina and that the boathouse to be used for storage is an institutional use that is not permitted within the shoreland zone along River Road.

The Appeals Board took up the issue at the request of abutter Matthew Fournier, through his company Hasafun LLC. Fournier argued institutional use was not approved in the rural, residential area.

In October 2014, Bates President Clayton Spencer announced that the college would construct a boathouse at the team’s current practice facility on the Androscoggin, roughly seven miles upriver from the college campus. In making the announcement, Spencer said construction was scheduled to begin in the summer of 2015 and the facility would be ready for use by fall 2016.

Designed by Peterson Architects, the 7,500-square-foot building would have boat storage space, locker and shower facilities, a team room and office space. It was to be funded by a gift from the parent of a team member.

On Friday, Kent Fischer, director of media relations for Bates College, said, “While we’re disappointed with the board’s decision, we are examining what options are available to us to move the project forward.”

Under the municipal building permit process, options include returning to the Planning Board with a new plan or appealing the Appeals Board decision to Androscoggin County Superior Court.

Fournier, whose family home abuts the current facility, said, “I really like the athletic component to this,” but he doesn’t like the potential for a bigger, louder and busier boathouse next door.

As it is, he said, he endures the noise of as many as “65 kids on the dock, drinking in the middle of the day and they’re all Bates College kids. Is this part of the institutional use?”

He said Bates College does not monitor the off-campus boathouse and, as a result, it has become “a Palace Playland” for parties.

“It’s a great place. A beautiful place. It’s use is very recreational a lot of the time,” Fournier said, including during the summer when Bates hosts children’s camps.

“They show up at 5:30 in the morning. They do drilling, jogging, stretching,” and then get in boats and use a bullhorn to direct the crews in the water. “And they come back at 2 or 3 o’clock and do it all over again,” he said.

After the summer campers go home, young adults “come back at night and they do things.” He declined to describe that activity because he found it too upsetting but said just this week students were flying a drone over his house. Sometimes, Fournier said, there are as many as 90 students on the grounds, clogging the road with vehicles and sometimes parking in his driveway. “A bigger facility would compound that problem,” Fournier said, and “Greene is not prepared, development-wise, to handle that.”

Fournier, who said he enjoys watching the Bates crew practice and compete, said “The biggest tragedy here, other than my discontent, is that the Pineland Lumber property in Lewiston is probably the most perfect spot for Bates College to build a marina, or whatever they want to call it. It’s almost on their campus. People can actually watch the regatta events. And they have hotel and restaurant amenities.”