LAND USE ORDINANCE
COMMITTEE
MINUTES FEBRUARY 17, 2005
Members present: Guests:
Terry White Connie Merrill
Marty Hipsky Delores Butler
Don Carroll Dave Bushstaber
Betty Bridges
Vonnie White
Cliff Hatfield
Welcome presented by Betty Bridges outlining the purpose of this meeting, which is to have a Land Use Ordinance ready to pass by May, 2006. The evening’s agenda was passed to those present. The meeting was turned over to Terry White to act as the facilitator for the evenings meeting.
Terry White presented plans for running an effective meeting.
First by setting up ground rules that we should follow so that attendee’s have an opportunity to express their opinions for or against the Land Use Ordinance.
Second to make sure all the material on the evening’s agenda is addressed.
Third to achieve our desired objective’s for the evening.
Terry White asked Marty Hipsky to review the past history of the Land Use Ordinance. Marty Hipsky explained the Land Use Ordinance was the next step in implementation of the Comprehensive Plan, which had been accepted by the residence of the Town. The Land Use Ordinance was presented to the voters in May and November of 2004 and rejected both times.
Members then went on to list the reasons the Ordinance was turned down by the voters and to prioritize them as to the importance in that failure.
Number One was misinformation being circulated about
the Ordinance
To address number one on misinformation the members agreed on four points: We need to prevent the misinformation, Educate the citizens about the Ordinance, List the misinformation so we can address it and last to come up with an Effective interpretation. Our job is to fix the misinformation and in order to do that we need input from the citizens; we need to involve the concerned minority and come up with a way to convince over 1500 people possibly with a Question and Answer type survey. We need to get more people involved in this process so everyone was asked to bring someone with them for the next meeting.
Members agreed on five points: 1. People were upset that the Ordinance put all businesses in designated locations. 2. There were too many zoning restrictions. 3. Business size limitations and non-conforming use. 4. Home business limitations. 5. Yard sales.
Members present agreed on seven points: 1. Don’t like the selectmen telling them what they can do. 2. The whole package of control. 3. Undefined. 4. I own it. 5. Perceptions. 6. Town already has enough control. 7. Controlled by the Building Code, the Planning Board, Shore land Zoning so why more?
Respectfully submitted,
Betty Bridges