Robert Orr & Associates, the New Haven, Conn. firm under contract to create proposed form-based codes for Damariscotta, recently began work on a draft code.
As the firm began work, the attendant public process, led by consultants Paul Dreher and Jane Lafleur, continued with a series of workshops Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
About 17 people attended an afternoon session Jan. 31 at the Damariscotta Municipal Building for a “hands-on” public workshop focusing on the T-5 part of the code.
According to documents distributed at the workshops, “T-5” refers to a Transect Zone, the densest of the five zones the proposed codes may include.
A “T-5 Village Center Zone consists of higher density mixed use building[s] that accommodate retail, offices, row houses and apartments,” according to workshop documents. “It has a tight network of streets, with wide sidewalks, steady street tree planting and buildings set close to the sidewalks.”
“Steady street tree planting” refers to the planting of trees at code-specified intervals, Dreher said.
A slightly larger crowd of 22, including two selectmen, Town Planner Anthony Dater, members of the Damariscotta Planning and Advisory Committee (DPAC) and Frank Roberts, a partner in the proposed Piper Commons development, attended the evening workshop at the Mobius community center.
Damariscotta resident Laurie Green, Roberts and DPAC member Heather Bolint presented the results of the earlier workshop, in which participants, using colored pencils, designated areas of the town as T-1 through T-5 Transect Zones or special districts.
Workshop attendees gathered around a circular table to watch the presentations and make suggestions in an informal, two-hour conversation.
A morning “café session” at the Maine Coast Book Shop and Café Feb. 1 drew healthy attendance as well, with participants crowding around a row of tables to continue the discussion.
Dreher called the town’s “level of engagement” in the process “amazing” at the evening workshop Jan. 31.
Dreher told workshop attendees a story about a colleague who refers to him jokingly as a “greenie pinhead” due to their ideological differences. Despite these differences, Dreher said, both are staunch advocates of form-based codes. “It’s politically neutral,” Dreher said.
The Robert Orr & Associates team is editing a “tried and true” template in use “all around the country” and known as SmartCode 9.2, Dreher said in a Feb. 1 interview.
“It’s a very good template to start from,” Dreher said. “It’s slowly and surely being tailor-made for Damariscotta.”
The next of seven sets of workshops with Dreher and Orr is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 21-22.
