Damariscotta residents at a July 26 forum at the Lincoln Theater, with only two exceptions, said they support a form-based code, although not, necessarily, the Damariscotta SmartCode.
The SmartCode, a proposed amendment to Damariscotta’s land use ordinance, failed, 301-127, in a June 14 referendum.
Multiple residents at Tuesday’s meeting, dubbed a “listening session” by town officials, said they voted against the SmartCode not because they oppose form-based codes, but because of shortcomings in the SmartCode.
Meanwhile, only two people in attendance expressed opposition to form-based codes in principle.
Damariscotta officials heard a wide range of suggestions about how to improve the code.
A DPAC roster dated Dec. 20, 2010 lists 11 of 15 members (over 73 percent) as Damariscotta residents.
A man who identified himself as a resident of Elm Street said the DPAC members should have placards that identify them and state their town of residence.
“I don’t think it’s helpful if you have a chair who has strong opinions,” the man added, in an apparent reference to DPAC Chairwoman Robin Mayer, an outspoken advocate of the SmartCode.
Former Damariscotta Selectman Walter Hilton objected to the participation of anyone from outside Damariscotta. “They never should have been asked to join,” Hilton said. “We should be running our own town.”
Hilton also condemned the involvement of Friends of Midcoast Maine, a Camden-based non-profit organization that offset thousands of dollars of the cost of code development through grants to the town.
“I knew exactly where we were going to end up,” Hilton said. “It’s going to end up anti-business, anti-growth, and that’s absolutely what this code is.”
The SmartCode “got voted down soundly,” Hilton said. “Let’s move on.”
Hilton’s opposition inspired several non-residents to defend their roles in the code development process.
Alan Pooley is a DPAC member from Newcastle and a member of the Newcastle Planning Board.
“I walk this town every day. I shop here, I go to the library here,” Pooley said. “I live in Newcastle. I love Damariscotta.”
“I especially want to know what business people think from town,” Damariscotta resident, attorney and DPAC member Peter Drum said. Drum pointed out the owner of Maine Coast Book Shop and Café, representatives of Renys and others in attendance – all non-residents – as people offering valuable insight into the process.
Barnaby Porter told a story about returning to Damariscotta as a teenager on a bus with his not-yet-wife, Susan Porter. Susan, 16 years old at the time, told him she’d like to live in Damariscotta someday.
The Porters own and operate Maine Coast Book Shop and Café. They live in Walpole, about a mile south of the Damariscotta town line.
“You can’t expect us not to care what happens in this community,” Barnaby Porter said. “You can’t say that we have no reason to care what goes on in this place.”
“It’s not like anyone is trying to control this town, we just care a lot,” he said.
“There was a lot of confusing and conflicting information,” Damariscotta resident Lisa Katz said. “I don’t know if I should vote on something I don’t understand fully.”
“I urge that we get more information out to the voters,” another resident said. “I think the goal ought to be to get a larger portion of the community understanding what this pretty complicated change in regulatory development is all about.”
“I think it just needs some tweaking, some changing,” Ed Seidel said. “I think it’s an appropriate way for our town to grow.”
“Many [residents] voted it down because they just didn’t understand it,” Seidel said. “People need to understand what’s in the code and they need to like what’s there.”
“The level of understanding and the level of information is at vastly different points across the community,” DPAC member and Damariscotta resident Jean Moon said, advocating for a “well thought-out strategy on education.”
Former Damariscotta Selectman Chester Rice (currently a South Bristol Selectman) owns a large parcel on Bus. Rt. 1 near Damariscotta Hardware.
The land is “cut in half by present zoning,” Rice said. “[Commercial] zoning lines need to be moved back in a straight line” to “allow Damariscotta to grow a tax base it needs very badly,” he said.
“Young people are being taxed right out of their houses right now,” Rice said. Rice’s daughter pays $100 per week in property taxes, he said.
Hilton disagreed with Rice’s conclusions. “What this code does is no growth,” he said.
Drum, who often deals with zoning as part of his firm’s practice, contradicted Hilton.
A strong form-based code, Drum said, would have “very strict standards about what the community wants.”
If a company opts to build a neighborhood in line with the wishes of the community “you can get approved in a week,” Drum said, instead of the sometimes months-long process under current rules.
It’s “dramatically faster and much more business friendly to have a form-based code,” Drum said. “If you have clear standards you can build what you want very fast and very efficiently under a form-based code.”
Jenny Mayer, a DPAC member from Newcastle, said form-based codes “really are more pro-business than what we have now.” Mayer quoted a recent article in Mainebiz as saying “towns all over Maine are looking at form-based codes as an engine of economic development.”
Commercial growth without form-based codes can be counterproductive for a town’s tax base, Drum pointed out.
Brunswick and Rockland have more and larger businesses than Damariscotta, yet property owners pay tax (mil) rates in the mid-20s, Drum said. Damariscotta’s rate, at 13.95, is a relative bargain.
“Business, in and of itself, doesn’t lower your taxes,” Drum said. “It has to be business under a certain model.”
The downtown Damariscotta model of dense, multi-story, multi-use buildings grows a tax base without the considerable expense of building “roads to strip malls” and the other infrastructure necessary to support sprawling development.
Drum, perhaps the most vocal supporter of a form-based code at the meeting, did not vote for the Damariscotta SmartCode. “I didn’t vote for it because it’s not good enough,” he said. “We need to make it better.”
Damariscotta attorney Hylie West was the only person besides Hilton to voice opposition to any form-based code. “I don’t think it speeds up anything one iota since the old [land use] ordinance remains in place,” West said.
West said he was speaking on behalf of clients who “don’t want to take a public stance.” His clients “couldn’t understand why the existing land use ordinance couldn’t be amended,” he said.
The SmartCode had, in fact, been proposed as an amendment to, not a replacement for, Damariscotta’s land use ordinance.
Residents suggested various ways to distribute the survey to achieve maximum feedback and different methods to formulate the survey.
Only Hilton opposed the idea of a survey altogether.
Trescot suggested having a series of meetings in residents’ homes, especially in the outlying parts of the town. “I think we need to go to them,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going to come to the town office.”
Drum suggested voting on the charrette report separately as an amendment/addition to Damariscotta’s comprehensive plan.
“If it doesn’t [succeed], form-based codes are done,” Drum said. “If it passes, obviously people want stronger codes.”
Rice tried to offer some basic marketing assistance. “The first thing you need to do is get rid of the name SmartCodes,” he said, noting that every resident he spoke with was “dead set against SmartCodes.”
“I think we need to take a simple approach – update the codes and get on with our life,” Rice said.
Dick McLean, the chairman of the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen, said he and his colleagues would consider all the evening’s talking points at their next meeting and discuss what to do next.
“We’re probably going to ask you all to come again because we don’t want to do this in a vacuum,” McLean said.
Before the meeting adjourned, Drum called for a resident-only straw poll on a future form-based code.
Only Hilton and one woman opposed the idea.
“If you have a good form-based code, the people will feel confident about it and will vote for it,” Drum said.
