KINGFIELD — A proposal from Bowdoin College for a student camping and outdoor education site on a 20.7-acre parcel off Iron Bridge Road is drawing sharp criticism from neighbors.

Residents, worried about traffic, noise and the narrow private road leading to the property, have been vocal about the plans and what they say are inconsistencies in the school’s messaging.

“Being a resident back there, it feels very unfair,” Jillian Monahan told the Sun Journal on Friday. Monahan lives on Claybrook Road, right off the main Iron Bridge Road.

“The town is not benefiting from this, and I look at them as though they’re using the town — or taking advantage,” she said.

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The college’s proposal plans for seven gravel pads for tents, each accommodating up to four tents; a 1,200-square-foot picnic shelter; two vault toilets; a hand-pump well; a small pad for a future maintenance building; and two parking areas and a bus drop-off zone along Iron Bridge Road.

Bowdoin announced the purchase of the land in April, and said it would soon be sending members of the Outing Club to camp at the site.

The site currently has enough flat area for at least 40 students to camp in tents, the announcement said. The location is central to areas where the group already sends trips, including Sugarloaf and Saddleback ski areas, Flagstaff Lake, the Appalachian Trail and the Bigelow Range.

The Outing Club offers students more than 170 excursions a year and has roughly 1,600 members, making it one of the more popular student activities on campus, according to the college.

Monahan and others expressed fears that Bowdoin might eventually construct permanent structures for winter use, specifically supporting skiing trips in the region.

College officials at a Planning Board meeting Tuesday refuted that.

“We’re not proposing winter operations,” said John Simoneau, Bowdoin’s director of capital projects. “This is a seasonal site for late summer and early fall, and again in the spring.”

However, Bowdoin has described the property and its future differently in its own publications. A story published in April by the Times Record reported that the college planned to name the site the Finnegan McCoul Woodruff Outdoor Center after the late Bowdoin student.

Project planners envision “bunkhouses, Adirondack-style shelters, a covered pavilion, tent pads, vault outhouses and a well and pump for running water,” according to information published in April on the school’s website.

Bowdoin described the facility as offering year-round access for students, though Simoneau emphasized Tuesday that such plans are not part of the current permitting request.

The meeting last week was a voluntary pre-application conference, Simoneau said in an email Friday. It allowed consultants to informally discuss the project with the Planning Board before submitting a full application.

According to Simoneau, activity at the site would not start until the college secured its permits for the campground. However, residents reported seeing Bowdoin vans parked overnight at the property, drawing further concerns about traffic and increased wear on local roads.

Monahan noted that school buses already avoid the Iron Bridge because of its posted 34-ton weight limit and said the additional traffic from college vans “will only make it worse.”

Simoneau said he was not aware of any Bowdoin vehicles staying overnight, adding that the school has no intention of bringing 31 vehicles to the site as parking plans suggest.

“They’re going to come as buses or vans,” he said, adding that the college plans to use full-sized buses for preorientation trips only in August. Otherwise, students would rely on 10-passenger vans or minivans.

Sebago Technics, a civil engineering firm representing Bowdoin, wrote in pre-application materials that the new development would be outside the shoreland zone and would be designed to preserve the landscape. Materials also said the project would generate a small amount of traffic and would not significantly increase noise or burden municipal services.

Monahan said Bowdoin’s contribution to road upkeep would only match what other residents pay into the road association — a frustrating fact among neighbors who believe the college should bear more responsibility for its impact.

“That doesn’t seem like enough given the increased traffic they’ll bring,” she said.

Richard Hawkes, another Kingfield resident, submitted a letter to Planning Board chair Clay Tranton with concerns about the project. He urged that Bowdoin be treated as a full “developer” and held to the same standards as any other applicant in the valley.

He also brought up concerns about little information shared in the preliminary process around vault toilets, drainage and erosion control, and fire access. Hawkes suggested that Bowdoin should potentially contribute toward future road and bridge maintenance given the increased stress additional traffic may place on the private Iron Bridge and narrow road network.

Monahan also expressed unease about Maine’s new housing law, LD 2003, which limits how municipalities can restrict certain types of development. She worries it could make it harder for the town to block future expansion at the site.

“If Bowdoin benefits from that law, that’s unfair, and everybody should have a problem with that,” she said, adding that Maine’s housing issues are difficult enough as they are.

Simoneau said the property’s use would be “institutional” under Kingfield’s zoning ordinance, but also noted that the school is considering performance requirements related to campgrounds in the project’s design. Both uses are allowed with Planning Board approval, he said.

The college said the site would operate from late August through Indigenous Peoples Day in October and again from April to May. It would not be open to the public but could occasionally host faculty and staff trips.

Simoneau said Bowdoin chose the Kingfield area because of its proximity to the outdoor club’s paddling and hiking destinations.

“We drew a nexus of where they paddle, where they hike, and where they do all of these trips — it kind of hits the same center,” he said. “Obviously a lot of people have ended up in this region because it’s great for recreational access.”

The Planning Board took no action Tuesday, as the discussion was part of a preliminary review. A full application will be submitted later.