A men’s religious group will no longer be able to meet at the Deer Farm campground after the Kingfield Select Board voted to stop its large-scale gatherings that neighbors say have been disruptive.

The move comes after weeks of residents’ complaints about gatherings of Legendarios, an evangelical Christian men’s group, at Deer Farm and the nearby Shiloh Pond Community Forest.

Lance Dutson, a resident who lives on Tufts Pond near the campsite, has spoken against the group’s events in the area. More than 700 members of the group attended the last Kingfield outing in August. He described hearing chanting, loud music and train horns.

“Through the weekend, they have a PA system that they set up on the little beach at the end of Tufts Pond and blast music very, very early in the morning and into the night,” Dutson said.

He said even though there are only four year-round residences around Tufts Pond, locals are inconvenienced by the gatherings.

“We’ve heard comments from people in the neighborhood who just, you know, they leave on those weekends and go somewhere else rather than deal with the noise,” he said.

Dutson also described the group cutting a trail at Shiloh Pond Community Forest, which has been signed and closed to the public.

Deer Farms and the Legendarios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

At a Sept. 7 meeting, Dutson and other residents addressed the Kingfield Select Board, expressing their concern about the disturbances. No action was taken, but the town and its attorney began to look for ways to address the complaints.

The town will seek to restrict Deer Farm’s 36 campsites from hosting anything at the scale of last month’s Legendarios event.

At the meeting Sept. 21, Kingfield Town Manager Leanna Targett read a prepared summary that outlined the complaints and a recommended path forward for the town.

According to Targett, Kingfield’s attorney found that the gatherings did not fit under a transient overnight recreational development moratorium, which the town passed in July. He did find, however, a “clear and enforceable violation” of the town’s zoning ordinance.

Deer Farm resumed and expanded the use of its campground without the required permission of the town planning board. With 36 campsites allowed in its state license, and only three tent sites, events such as the Legendarios’ recent gatherings far exceeded the allowed use of the campground, Targett said.

“Hosting hundreds of attendees pitching tents in open fields directly violates both state sanitation rules in Section Six N2 of our local ordinance,” Targett read.

In addition to the two violations at the campsite, the town attorney also cited noise, traffic blocking Tufts Pond Road that impedes emergency access, trespassing and unauthorized timber cutting.

Selectmen voted to follow a two-step approach to the issue. First, the town will issue a corrected notice of violation, notifying Deer Farm of its unpermitted renewal and expansion under the standard zoning ordinance. Second, it will execute an administrative consent agreement to manage any future events at the campground, ensuring it stays at the 36-site maximum.

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